Avalanche forecast

Avalanche forecast

Payette Avalanche Center
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Avalanche danger

Alpine
1 · Low
Treeline
1 · Low
Below
1 · Low
Out of date — this forecast expired 2 years ago. You’re viewing past conditions, not the current bulletin.

Highlights

You are most likely to trigger a dry loose avalanche in the upper 1-2 feet of the snowpack on slopes steeper than 35 degrees that are shaded and have stayed protected from the winds. Most of these avalanches are not going to be big enough to bury a person yet could push someone into bad terrain like cliffs and gullies.

Use good travel protocols like 1 at a time on slopes steeper than 30 degrees.

Avalanche problems

  • Loose Dry

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    1–2

    Warmer temps from 2 days of an inversion and recent Northen winds have locked up most of our snowpack. The remaining concern would be steep terrain with loose snow moving with you. This problem is going to be bigger in the Northen portion of the advisory area that got more snow out of the last storm than the southern area. Use caution in exposed terrain and implement sluff management techniques and caution around such terrain traps.

Avalanche Discussion

Good stability with clear blue skies! Enjoy the high pressure but don't forget your coat and your caution in the backcountry. A Green danger rating is not a full green light. Incorporate good travel protocols to cover any outlier like triggering an avalanche or a cornice fall. Dry loose is our main concern, yet Thursday will warm at upper elevations and due south steep terrain may shed some more wet loose snow in the afternoon. 

Our lower snowpack is strong with the upper soft snowpack consisting of weak layers of facets and crusts that have poor bonds yet are rounding from warmth. The long-term weather forecast is not calling for much more than an inch or two of snow so we may have to wait another week to see what kind of avalanches a future snow load may create?

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