Avalanche forecast

Selkirk Mountains

Idaho Panhandle Avalanche Center
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Avalanche danger

Tue
Alpine
2 · Moderate
Treeline
2 · Moderate
Below
1 · Low
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Out of date — this forecast expired 5 months ago. You’re viewing past conditions, not the current bulletin.

Highlights

New snow and steady winds have built fresh, wind-drifted slabs above a firm old snow surface. These slabs will be the most problematic where drifting is around a foot deep and the ensuing avalanche would be notably larger. Pillowy looking surfaces and cracking in the snow are clues you are approaching a wind-drifted area and suggest retreating to wind-sheltered terrain or choosing a slope that faces another direction to recreate on.

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

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

    Strong southwest winds are quickly working to deepen and thicken newly formed slabs at middle and upper elevations. 24-hour snow totals range 3 to 8 inches and now rest above mostly firm surfaces around the compass. You may encounter isolated places on sheltered slopes or those facing the wind with reactive storm snow, but the new snow will be deeper and more broadly drifted on northerly and easterly-facing slopes. There, fresh slabs up to a foot thick could produce a larger and potentially more consequential avalanche.

    Fortunately, there are helpful clues and warning signs that can help guide you around the most worrisome places. Pay attention to how much snow you are walking or riding through - if you find more than about 6 inches of new snow, stop and reassess because you are likely in an area with enough new snow to harbor drifting hazards. If the snow surface becomes stiffer, if you barely make an impression on the surface, or the snow surface looks smooth and pillowy, you are likely in a wind-drifted area. If you hear audible collapsing or see fresh avalanches, pull back to lower-angled slopes away from ridges and limit travel below steep sidewalls of gullies.

    (2/16/2026)

    Shooting cracks extended from our skis today while traveling in areas where the wind has drifted and stiffened the recent storm snow. This shooting crack release a storm slab avalanche in steeper terrain below a gentle ridgeline.

    Photo: Jackson George

Avalanche Discussion

The latest round of snowfall has moved downstream. Elevated winds will linger over the next 48 hours and will continue to transport snow out of windward fetches and into leeward-facing areas. The wind doesn’t look overly angry so drifting is likely found in the usual places. As you move lower in elevation where snow depths could taper from around 8 inches to just a couple of inches, similar drifting concerns are likely more isolated if they exist at all.

Thanks to the plethora of spring-time weather, rain, and many days of a repetitive thaw-refreeze cycle, fresh avalanche concerns should be confined to the recent snowfall. Places where the crust below the new snow became more breakable recently, those slides could break slightly deeper and increase the overall volume of snow to slide downhill. However, the depth extent of a slide is likely restricted by the rain-soaked now refrozen mass layer underneath and that’s really holding the main snowpack body together.  

Since most of the new snow fell in the warm sector of the storm, new snow densities range 10 to 15%. This could improve bonding at the new/ old snow interface, but it will also make shallower slabs more cohesive and potentially more reactive than if the same depths fell with lower-density, more fluffy snow. If you find the new snow in sheltered areas is softer and more cohesionless, the snow there is more likely to sluff with ski or machine disturbance. With how smooth and planar the old snow surface is, any flavor of slide you trigger will likely move quickly downhill. Keep your head on a swivel to avoid getting pushed somewhere you don’t want to go.

If you do trigger either a loose snow or slab avalanche today, keep in mind even small slides can have compounding consequences if they happen in the wrong terrain - like above large cliffs, on long and sustained steep slopes, or where you get stuffed in a terrain trap or depression and debris piles in behind you.

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