Avalanche forecast

Avalanche forecast

Payette Avalanche Center
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Avalanche danger

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Out of date — this forecast expired 4 years ago.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

Highlights

A cooling trend starting yesterday afternoon will be refreezing the snowpack and eliminating the wet loose avalanche problem pretty quickly over the next few nights.  Today, look for shallow sluffs with a few inches of new snow sitting on the newly formed crust.  It is possible that you could trigger wind slabs up to 2 feet thick in steep wind-loaded terrain that did not run naturally in the last few days.  Conditions will be variable today and with widespread avalanche activity over the last week, you should enter steeper terrain with caution.

 

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    1

    The Avalanche cycle earlier this week was fairly widespread and many wind-loaded slopes show the results.  We were able to see a lot of steep terrain yesterday and most of it had crowns visible from natural avalanches that occurred Monday and early Tuesday.  Most of these were relatively shallow with crows around a foot deep.  We did see some larger crowns in areas that were more heavily loaded by the winds Sunday and Monday.  Many of these slabs were resting on the older firmer or faceted snow below.  While it is much less likely that you will trigger a wind slab today based on the simple fact that most (but not all) slopes failed naturally, it is definitely still a possibility that you could find a slope that is still waiting for a trigger.  

Avalanche Discussion

Today's advisory is sponsored by CM Backcountry Rentals and Adventures, thanks for supporting PAC and the Friends! This week has been an interesting week for weather.  Last Saturday we saw overnight temps below 0 and by Monday afternoon it was raining above 7000 feet.  Our snowpack reacted in a predictable way with widespread natural avalanche activity occurring early this week.  In most areas,  the wind slabs that failed were resting on a layer of dense wind packed snow or some of the light dry, recycled powder that was a joy to ski and ride in last week.  The rapid warmup combined with wind loading did a pretty good job cleaning off our slopes but it is still possible that you could trigger a slab avalanche in wind-loaded terrain that did not release by itself.  That should be foremost in your mind if you are skiing or riding in any steeper terrain.  The good news is that stability should be on the increase with the rapid cooling that we saw last night and will see for the next few nights.  Our wet avalanche problem will go away pretty quickly as the upper portion of the snowpack refreezes and drys out.  With the addition of a few inches of new snow yesterday afternoon and overnight and the possibility of a few more inches over the next few days, shallow sluffing will be pretty widespread in steeper terrain.  You should plan accordingly and avoid committing terrain.  Variability before the storm was the name of the game and we are still finding weak layers buried below the mid-February crust.  Shallow areas near rocks developed weak, faceted snow during the extended high pressure and could fail with the right amount of load.