East Cabinet Mountains

Firm and stable conditions persist across the Kootenai! We may see the snowpack surface get a refresh of 2-4" on Wednesday. Until then, stay on your feet and avoid going for a death slide on the icy crust layer! If the predicted snow materializes we can expect to see a "loose-dry" avalanche problem develop in steep terrain on Wednesday afternoon. Maybe a good time to practice your "slough-management" skills!

The icy rain and wind crust from January 13th continues to grace us with its' presence. While it provides us with generally stable avalanche conditions it makes for a fairly lousy riding experience. The biggest hazard out there right now is falling in steep terrain. If you lose control in these conditions it may be hard to stop. Looking into the future we have some light snowfall predicted on Wednesday that may develop into a "loose-dry" avalanche problem in steep terrain. With the dense crust layer and a growing crop of surface hoar out there I expect any new snow we receive to bond poorly with the existing snowpack. Looking farther out into the forecast the weather service continues to hint at small pulses of weather coming into the area; but, confidence is still fairly low and nothing major is predicted to impact the area in the week ahead.