Avalanche forecast

Salt River and Wyoming Ranges

Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center
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Avalanche danger

Alpine
3 · Considerable
Treeline
3 · Considerable
Below
2 · Moderate
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Out of date — this forecast expired 8 years ago. You’re viewing past conditions, not the current bulletin.

Highlights

Dangerous avalanche conditions continue to be a threat to backcountry travelers. Yesterday, a skier was buried by a small slide in the Teton Pass area and similar events could happen today. Over the last seven days a consistent pattern of storm systems has brought nearly thirty inches of snow and three inches of snow water equivalent to the higher elevations of the Salt River Range. A chance continues to trigger wind formed slabs within this new snow, however, the primary concern rests with persistent weak layers of snow that lie at the interface of this recent snow or within deeper weak layers formed during previous cold dry periods. These instabilities could be triggered at all elevations today and have the potential to be large above 8000 feet. Conservative terrain choices are necessary to avoid this persistent slab problem.

Avalanche problems

  • Persistent Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Likely
    Size
    2

    The presence of a single skier or rider has the potential to trigger slab avalanches in steep avalanche terrain and remote triggering remains a possibility. Above 8000 feet, slabs could run on sun crusts and surface hoar on southerly aspects and on faceted snow on northerly aspects to depths of of one to four feet. At lower elevations slabs to eighteen inches could be triggered on a snowpack with weak structure. Once triggered slabs could entrain deeper snowpack layers.

Avalanche Discussion

( Discussion is generated from the previous day's afternoon forecast. )Skies are to clear this evening and be mostly sunny and dry on Tuesday. Temperatures are to be much colder and mildly inverted in the morning with mountain lows in the single digits followed by highs in the teens. Northwest winds are to have fifteen to twenty mile per hour averages during the day which will keep ridge-tops cool, while sunlit calm areas have the potential for rapid warming. The general avalanche hazard will continue to be Considerable above 7500 feet and Moderate below that elevation. The recently formed slabs have gained some strength and due to time and their nature, will behave less like new winds slabs in the days to come. They will continue to be dangerous and sensitive to human presence as their behavior takes on characteristics primarily of persistent slabs. In some areas, the slabs lie above sun crusts and surface hoar while in others, slabs lie over a very weak snowpack. Predicting where these weakness make the snowpack unstable enough to slide by a persons weight is very difficult as many slopes will not fail while others may release remotely. Restraint and patience are key in managing this hazard. Slab depths could reach three or possibly four feet at higher elevations and eighteen inches at lower elevations.

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