Avalanche Advisory
Advisory: Skyline Area Mountains Issued by Brett Kobernik for Thursday - January 26, 2017 - 6:56am
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The majority of the terrain has a MODERATE avalanche danger. A CONSIDERABLE danger still exists along the higher ridgelines where recent deposits of wind drifted snow are present. Beware that there may be a few "booby traps" in the sheltered mid elevation steep terrain where surface hoar may act as a weak layer.
current conditions

Cold temperatures on Wednesday kept the snow feeling quite deep and powder-like on all aspects. Instability showers continued on and off during the day only adding an inch of snow or so.

During my day, my partner and I experienced a collapse of a wind drift. It was in a low angle area so we were safe. The snow "whoomped" and we felt the drift move underneath us. This is a certain sign of unstable snow. Had the drift been on a steep slope, it would have avalanched. This demonstrates how other drifts that have formed recently may behave on Thursday. These will stabilize but you might want to give them a little more time before trusting them.

We also found some buried surface hoar around the 9000 foot level in some sheltered terrain. It produced stubborn but clean shears. It's enough to be concerned about. I suspect that this sled triggered pocket (photo below, Dale Hadley) from Tuesday failed on surface hoar also. It was also in the 9000 foot range on a north facing shady slope.

Be sure to check out Steve Cote's backcountry observation from near Electric Lake also:

Region Occurence Date Type/Location Name
Skyline 01/25/2017 Observation: Electric Lake Steve Cote Details
weather
general announcements

We will publish full detailed advisories Saturday and Sunday mornings by 7am. We will also be publishing basic avalanche danger ratings & info during the week.

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