Forecast for the Skyline Area Mountains

Brett Kobernik
Issued by Brett Kobernik for
Friday, January 11, 2019
While the snowpack has stabilized a lot over the last few days HUMAN TRIGGERED AVALANCHES ARE STILL POSSIBLE especially on steep slopes on the north end of the Skyline.
Overall, the avalanche danger is MODERATE across the majority of the Skyline. Continue to avoid steep slopes that have been recently wind loaded with snow. You will find fresh drifts on all different facing slopes in the mid and upper elevations.
Low
Moderate
Considerable
High
Extreme
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Recent Avalanches
Yesterday I was able to go take a look at three different snowmobile triggered avalanches that occurred on Tuesday, Jan 8th. None of the riders were caught. The avalanches were all about 2' deep and broke into a layer of older snow that became weak when it was on the surface during the mid December dry spell. These were in Staker and Rolfson canyons which are areas that received the most snow out of the last storm. During my examinations I did not think that the mid December weak layer was actually all that weak. My hope is that it is not going to turn into a "persistent weak layer" that continues to produce avalanches. Things have stabilized over the last few days and it seems unlikely that this type of avalanche would release today.
Below is a list of all the avalanche activity that was reported from this week. There are a number of photos in each report.
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Additional Information
This forecast is from the U.S. Forest Service, which is solely responsible for its content. This forecast describes general avalanche conditions and local variations always occur.