Soldier & Wood River Valley Mtns

Refer to the Galena Summit & Eastern Mtns forecast if you're traveling in the western half of this zone—including the Warm Springs Ck drainage—or in the mountains north or east of Ketchum. We will resume issuing daily Avalanche Forecasts with Danger Ratings if/when snow cover allows for reasonable backcountry recreational access in the bulk of this zone.

Snow cover is minimal to non-existent in much of this zone. 

A snowpack exists on many slopes above about 6500' near the Coyote and Tornak huts; in the Warm Springs Ck drainage, including the out-of-bounds terrain on Bald Mountain; in the mountains north and east of Ketchum; and in the Soldier Mountains. If you are traveling in these areas, refer to the Galena Summit & Eastern Mtns forecast.

At lower elevations and on most slopes facing the southern half of the compass, it does not look or feel like winter in this zone. Access and travel are challenging at best in many standard recreational play areas due to thin or non-existent snow cover. Plan for a real adventure if you choose to explore these mountains.

Some current information that applies to areas with enough snow cover for recreation:

Over 100 avalanches (natural and remotely triggered) released last Wednesday-Friday. This diagram shows the spatial pattern of recent avalanche activity. Many recent avalanches were hundreds of feet wide, pulled into gentle terrain, and/or were remotely triggered - classic characteristics of persistent slab avalanches. Despite a lack of avalanche activity and diminishing reports of obvious signs of instability over the past couple of days, the weak layers responsible for all these avalanches will take a while to heal. Uncertainty with both their declining reactivity/triggerability and specific distribution are great reasons to build larger margins and multiple options into your mountain plans (great example here).

We're moving towards a low-likelihood-high-consequence situation with our given snowpack structure - in other words, SPOOKY. Identifying the ready-to-rip slopes (for either riding or avalanching) is becoming more challenging as the feedback from the snowpack becomes less frequent or obvious. At the same time, the consequences of being caught in an avalanche remain the same: these are expected to be large slides that could easily bury a person. Today's dusting of snow will only continue to muffle the obvious signs of instability you might find in the mountains while doing little to change the underlying problem. Think about the consequences of triggering an avalanche before committing to riding or skiing steep slopes, and when in doubt... mellow out.