Good morning this is Eric Morgan with the avalanche advisory for today, January 11th, 2013. This report does not apply to local ski areas within the forecast region and the hazard rating will remain valid through midnight January 11th, 2013. Special thanks to Idaho Parks and Recreation for sponsoring this avalanche advisory. Thanks to Silver Mountain Ski Patrol and Schweitzer Mountain Patrol for their observations on weather and snowpack from the high country.
Weather
Partly sunny. Temperatures down to 11 degrees with light Northeast winds 11-16mph. Tonight continues with clear and cold temperatures down to 8 in the mountains. Saturday will look more sunny with a high around 12 and light winds, 6mph out of the South. The outlook for the weekend beyond Saturday calls the same. Temperatures will hold in the low teens and single digits during the nights. Avalanche danger will likely remain the same through the outlook period.
Snowpack and Avalanche Discussion
Yesterday in the Cabinet Mountains, in the snowy weather we found good travel conditions and moderately stable conditions. We found a rain and wind crust under a few inches of snow up to about 4500 feet where the melt freeze crust started to soften and get better as we climbed upward toward Lunch Peak. With the recent snow events we found 3 inches of fluff on top of a 2 inch wind slab that sits above a light softer layer with a 4 finger hardness. When that wind slab breaks loose it does so on that soft layer 6-8 inches below the surface. This will be our concern for a while. There is also another thin crust about 48 cm below the snow surface formed from last Thursday's sun. Compression tests show shears with these wind slabs on the softer snow. Where there is windloading on these slabs and more snow accumulation one should be heads up. Keep an eye out for these layers in your pits and be a little more conservative if you are in wind affected or loaded areas.
Total snow depth in both ranges was 8-9 feet. Be aware of wind loading that may have occurred on lee aspects that sits atop a wind hammered slab.
The avalanche hazard rating for the Selkirk and Cabinet Mountains is rated as Moderate on all aspects with pockets of considerable on upper windloaded slopes greater than 35 degrees.
Weather
Partly sunny. Temperatures down to 11 degrees with light Northeast winds 11-16mph. Tonight continues with clear and cold temperatures down to 8 in the mountains. Saturday will look more sunny with a high around 12 and light winds, 6mph out of the South. The outlook for the weekend beyond Saturday calls the same. Temperatures will hold in the low teens and single digits during the nights. Avalanche danger will likely remain the same through the outlook period.
Snowpack and Avalanche Discussion
Yesterday in the Cabinet Mountains, in the snowy weather we found good travel conditions and moderately stable conditions. We found a rain and wind crust under a few inches of snow up to about 4500 feet where the melt freeze crust started to soften and get better as we climbed upward toward Lunch Peak. With the recent snow events we found 3 inches of fluff on top of a 2 inch wind slab that sits above a light softer layer with a 4 finger hardness. When that wind slab breaks loose it does so on that soft layer 6-8 inches below the surface. This will be our concern for a while. There is also another thin crust about 48 cm below the snow surface formed from last Thursday's sun. Compression tests show shears with these wind slabs on the softer snow. Where there is windloading on these slabs and more snow accumulation one should be heads up. Keep an eye out for these layers in your pits and be a little more conservative if you are in wind affected or loaded areas.
Total snow depth in both ranges was 8-9 feet. Be aware of wind loading that may have occurred on lee aspects that sits atop a wind hammered slab.
The avalanche hazard rating for the Selkirk and Cabinet Mountains is rated as Moderate on all aspects with pockets of considerable on upper windloaded slopes greater than 35 degrees.
