Avalanche forecast

Tetons

Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center
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Avalanche danger

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Out of date — this forecast expired 2 years ago.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

Highlights

Watch for warming snow surfaces that may become wet and unstable in the sun. While small and limited to solar aspects, this type of avalanche can be a problem in big terrain. Keep a close on eye on snow surfaces in sunny locations and enjoy the powder on shady slopes.

Avalanche problems

  • Loose Wet

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

    A wet loose avalanche or cornice fall large enough to trigger an avalanche or entrain enough snow to bury a person would be surprising but not impossible.  Signs of unstable snow and potentially weakening cornices will be obvious. Early signs would include being able to make a snowball that wets your glove or loose surface snow rolling down surfaces around cliff bands. When this activity begins to build, move to shadier terrain. Think twice before traveling under steep, rocky slopes baking in sunshine. 

Avalanche Discussion

A warming snowpack is never a good thing for recreation unless the snowpack is already isothermal and refrozen which our current snowpack definitely  is not. Yesterday's temperatures rose higher under clearer skies than expected which led to some wet, loose activity. Warmer temperatures are forecast for today but increasing winds with the potential for clouds building early brings some uncertainty to these heat induced problems. The good news is that the evidence for these problems is obvious asnd easily avoidable.

Our deeper persistent weak layer near the ground should be shielded from any larger, natural triggers due to their location on shady slopes but keeping a careful eye on terrain above and the timing of warming conditions would be a good idea today. The weak layers buried in mid and late December are preserved in the snowpack on northerly aspects. These layers appear to be dormant at this time in most locations. Unstable snow could potentially be found on isolated terrain features but would take a large trigger or exceptionally bad luck to find and trigger.  In other forecast zones these old layers remain a more widespread concern. 

Regions covered