Avalanche forecast

Selkirk Mountains

Idaho Panhandle Avalanche Center
View on map

Avalanche danger

Sun
Alpine
1 · Low
Treeline
1 · Low
Below
1 · Low
Open full map
Out of date — this forecast expired 4 years ago. You’re viewing past conditions, not the current bulletin.

Highlights

Stable avalanche conditions should be expected across the zone today. Moderate temperatures and winds have allowed the snowpack to strengthen across all elevations and aspects.  Natural and human triggered avalanches are unlikely today, but avalanches can still be triggered in isolated areas such as steep, open slopes above treeline, especially below rock outcroppings. 

Avalanche problems

  • Persistent Slabs

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

    Two to twelve inches of snow can be found on top of the Lucky Friday Crust from January 13th. The crust is widespread over the forecast region but crust thickness is variable. Weaker faceted snow is present near the crust. Additional interfaces with inconsistent sensitivity exist above and below the Lucky Friday Crust. With these complexities, be attentive to slab cohesion and mindful of terrain choices.  As the snow on top of the crust settles and becomes cohesive, I anticipate the sensitivty to failure to increase, but for today the snow above the crust is loose and not likely to fail.

Avalanche Discussion

We’ve seen some quick changes to the snowpack over the past week. Last Wednesday – Friday, rain fell on the snowpack creating loose-wet weaknesses near the surface. On Friday afternoon, we saw the temperature begin to drop and snow replaced the rain. Over the weekend and the early part of the week, snow started to add up. A couple inches everyday has changed the structure of the snowpack. All the rain that fell last week has pooled up on a melt-freeze crust about 20-30 cms down in the snowpack. At lower elevations, the crust is thick and supportable. At higher elevations the rain turned to snow earlier, so the rain crust isn’t quite as thick and supportable. Because of this, there’s more snow on top of the crust at higher elevations. There’s a noticeable change around 4,500’ which is about where the rain/snow line was last week.

On Thursday, Micah and I went north. We’ve been keeping close tabs on the Kootenay Zone in Canada, so we wanted to see if conditions in the northern part of our zone were resembling conditions that we’re seeing across the border. We visited Ruby Ridge near Canuck Pass. It was good to visit a more remote and less visited part of the forecast zone.

Overall, we found a colder and drier snowpack than places in the southern part of the forecast zone. The snowpack up north wasn’t as deep, and it had more characteristics of a Continental snowpack than the snowpack in the southern Selkirk/Cabinets. The overall structure of the snowpack up north was similar, but it was definitely colder and drier than the southern zone. Sometimes the differences in the snowpack are elevation driven or aspect driven, but today the biggest change is North to South in the zone. Long story short, if you travel into the backcountry in the Purcells or Northern Selkirks, expect different avalanche conditions. Today, the avalanche danger is applicable to both areas, but depending on what weather we see in the future, the differences in the snowpack could become more drastic.

I'll be up at Trestle Creek today hanging out with the Sandpoint Winter Riders and talking avalanche safety! Being a member of a snowmobile group is a great way to plug-in to good information and like-minded riding friends! I hope to see you out there!

AVALANCHE EDUCATION COURSES ARE STILL AVAILABLE

Sign up for a course today- https://www.idahopanhandleavalanche.org/education

 

Regions covered