Avalanche forecast

Elkhorns

Wallowa Avalanche Center
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Avalanche danger

Fri
Alpine
2 · Moderate
Treeline
2 · Moderate
Below
2 · Moderate
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Highlights

A lack of overnight refreeze at higher elevations on all aspects has led to an unstable upper snowpack.  In areas with a supportable crust in the morning, expect the danger to increase with midday warming, and in areas without one, danger may reach the high end of Moderate.  If you punch through a crust, feel more than 2" of sticky snow or see rollerballs, move to lower angled slopes or shady ones.  

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Avalanche problems

  • Loose Wet

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Likely
    Size
    1–1.5

    You can find fun corn riding when the sun softens the top 1" or so above a frozen crust.  When the sun bakes it to a gloppy 2-4" or ankle-deep mush, natural or human-triggered wet loose are possible. 

    If the surface didn't freeze overnight, it won't be safe or fun.  If you see rollerballs or pinwheels, or punch through the crust below, move to non-avalanche terrain or shady aspects.

    (2/25/2025)

    A wind slab avalanche that entrained wet snow from the Norway area.  This failed early in the week.  

    Photo: Wallowa Avalanche Center

  • Cornices

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

    Do not linger near any cornices or runouts of slopes below them until we get colder temperatures.  While unlikely, these are very hard and destructive blocks of snow and are hard to predict when or if they will fail.  

    Photo: Victor McNeil

Avalanche Discussion

Snowpack:  Observers from the past few days in the Halfway and Burger Butte areas of the S Wallowas found soft slabs (12-18") and small to large wet loose avalanches that naturally released from Sunday/Monday's rain on snow event.  Significantly, there have been no crowns reported in the 3-4' range or very large (D3+) debris piles that would indicate a persistent slab avalanche on our January facets layer.  As a result of this lack of activity under major loading, we have decided to move our persistent slab problem to "dormant" or unlisted.  We have had few obs from the N Wallowas post Feb 23 cycle.  

Moderate winds may shift some snow in the alpine, but there is limited snow available for transport, so any windslabs would likely be small.  

What to do: Riding in areas without an overnight refreeze is not very enjoyable, let alone safe.  Along with an increased likelihood of wet avalanches, if you, your skis or your machine punches through an unsupportable crust, it can cause annoyance in getting stuck or injure you.  Lower elevations may ride better than higher ones today, or any sheltered, shady, low angle terrain.   Watch out for overhead hazards, especially with midday warming.  

Add value to your forecast.  Visibility is excellent, so please send photos and details of recent wet avalanches, old crowns and debris from the Atmospheric River Sunday, or just rollerballs and drooping cornices.  Submit an observation here.  

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