Observation: Northern Bear River Range

Observation Date
12/16/2022
Observer Name
Eric and Amy Flygare
Region
Logan » Southeast Idaho » Northern Bear River Range
Location Name or Route
Southeast Idaho
Comments
We rode in southeastern Idaho today and found great riding conditions. We rode <30 degree south facing aspects above 8400 feet elevation and found very little wind affected snow other than along the highest ridges. We did notice some cracking in wind drifted snow with a 6 foot pocket pulling out ahead of our snowmobile (see pictures). We also noticed the top 18 inches of snow buckling on a small steep rollover during a hard carve but it only slid a few feet. We were surprised that we didn’t get any heart stopping wumpfs like we did yesterday. Other than that, we did not observe any other recent avalanches or red flags on our day out.
Once we got home, we got a good look at the east faces of the front range through a telescope. There were many long running, point release sluffs in many drainages. None of these sluffs triggered any slab avalanches. It looks like people are starting to venture onto a few slopes across the range without incident that we could see.
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Considerable
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Considerable