For the week of January 8 - 14, 2003

Avalanche danger rises with warming trend

---

By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer

As high pressure settles over the Northwest, temperature inversions are baking Central Idaho’s mountains and creating significant avalanche hazards.

Sawtooth National Forest Avalanche Center Director Janet Kellam called this week’s avalanche danger "serious."

"Yesterday, unseasonably warm temperatures at upper elevations induced large, destructive avalanches on Galena Peak," Kellam said Tuesday.

Nighttime lows Monday were around 38 degrees Fahrenheit, and at 10 a.m. Tuesday morning, the temperature on Bald Mountain’s summit was already 44 F.

"The warm temperatures are inducing a downhill creep of the surface snow, just like the snow on your roof," Kellam said. "This creates great stress within the snowpack and the buried weak layers simply can’t withstand the strain.

"We have significant buried weak layers on the ground and mid-pack. The weak layers fail and the overlying slabs fracture, creating large, destructive avalanches."

Kellam said backcountry travel near or below any steep slopes is discouraged until things settle down.

Last week’s storms also elevated avalanche danger, and several lift-serviced skiers almost learned the hard way that skiing beyond ski area boundaries on Baldy can be extremely hazardous when avalanche danger is high.

Sun Valley spokesman Jack Sibbach said the Sun Valley Ski Patrol responded to an avalanche on a backcountry bowl called Heaven. Two skiers reported that they were missing a companion, and the ski patrol performed a quick search of the area, before the missing friend turned up, having skied to the bottom of the mountain.

"Those ropes are up for a reason," Sibbach said. "Our ski patrol really has no obligation to get people who go out of bounds. If something happens on the mountain while they are out there searching, it could limit their resources," Sibbach said. "Really, the ski patrol and everyone else involved just wants to say, ‘Be careful.’"

According to the National Avalanche Center, there have been nine avalanche fatalities in the United States this winter season. Last Saturday, in fact, a snowboarder was caught and killed in an avalanche on Teton Pass, between Victor, Idaho, and Jackson, Wyo.

 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.