This is Janet Kellam of the Sawtooth National Forest Avalanche Center with your Backcountry Avalanche Advisory and Weather Forecast for Saturday, January 12, 2008 at 7:30 am. The Sawtooth Society in partnership with Idaho's SNRA Mountain Goat license plate program & the Friends of the Sawtooth Avalanche Center bring you this advisory. Bottom Line: Central and South Wood River Valley and areas with a shallower snowpack: Today the avalanche danger is estimated to be CONSIDERABLE on slopes approximately mid 30 degree slope angle and steeper. This means human triggered avalanches are likely in steep areas. One to two feet of newer snow lies on top of very loose, weak snow throughout this region. Larger avalanches are possible beneath wind drifted ridgelines. North Wood River Valley and areas with a deeper snowpack: The North Valley is a transition zone between the weak, underlying snowpack prevalent near town and the more consolidated snowpack in the Galena area, Salmon headwaters and further back in the Sawtooth and Smoky Mountains. The avalanche danger is estimated to be MODERATE where a deeper, more consolidated snowpack is found, but the danger remains CONSIDERABLE for steep slopes where areas of weak snow lie beneath our Christmas and January snowstorms. Travel in this region requires good snow evaluation and a cautious approach as it can be difficult to identify where the weaker areas are. Primary Avalanche Concern: In the Central and South Valley reports are still coming in of collapsing and whumphing on a variety of slopes. A very large avalanche released yesterday morning or during Thursday night on one of the northwest facing Eagle Creek headwalls. This was due to Tuesday and Thursday's smaller storms added to last weekend's snow and wind loading of the upper elevation slopes. A 6 foot deep avalanche was reported breaking out and running on a southeast facing slope in upper Eagle Creek sometime Wednesday. The weight of three skiers on the low angle Murdock/Eagle Creek ridgeline triggered the slide on the slope below them. In the North Valley weak, underlying snow exists in the Durrance area and northwards towards Galena Summit. Any alpine terrain or elevations below approximately 9,000feet have this weak snowpack. Steep rocky areas are also at risk. Other slides of note: In the Baker Creek area, the upper slopes of Apollo and Brodie broke out wall to wall during last weekends storm. Yesterday morning a plow triggered a small weak pocket above the road at Galena Summit. This broke about 2 feet deep and partially blocked the road. In the Galena/Sawtooth region smaller, steep areas had slides that ran during Thursday's snowfall and wind. Areas around Galena Summit show a more stable consolidated snowpack but continue to require stability evaluation on a slope by slope basis. Concerns there are for weak pockets, steep rocky slopes with weak underlying snow where larger slides may break out, or poor bonding of Tuesday and Thursdays foot of snow and wind drifted slabs. We continue to find isolated instabilities in some of our December snow layers. These have not shown a real pattern, but this indicates the importance of stability evaluation for each area you travel. If you do not have these skills it is best to stick to more moderate terrain. Secondary Avalanche Concern: Keep an eye out for new surface wind slabs. Yesterday in the Galena area, the top foot or so of snow from Thursdays storm showed poor bonding to the underlying snow both on shaded slopes and on sun crusts that had formed Wednesday. Any recently formed wind slabs may break out on this layer on all aspects. Current Conditions: Yesterday morning the five inches of new snow in town was a foot of light snow in the Galena area and back in the Smoky and Sawtooth Mountains. Yesterday's heat began to turn it into sticky and not so light snow in many places. Shaded and northfacing is still good. Once the sun left, surface crusts formed on any aspect that got a little heat. Some of these slopes have Wednesday's crust layer anywhere from a few inches to about a foot beneath the surface. On shaded slopes, the snow consolidated somewhat. Areas exposed to northwest winds now have wind slabs and wind dappled surfaces. Winds died down during the day yesterday and are light out of the northwest this morning. Titus Ridge and Soldier Mtn weather stations appear to have riming on their anemometers so wind speeds are unknown at those sites. Temperatures heated up into the twenties and high teens at upper elevations but dropped back into the low to mid teens this morning. Mountain Weather Forecast: Clear skies this morning are forecast to cloud over as a minor disturbance brings snow showers to the mountains but no real accumulation. Sunday, a ridge of high pressure is expected to build bringing temperature inversions to the valleys. Cooler temperatures are expected today, staying in the teens at upper elevations and 32 degrees or less on the valley floor. Winds should stay light. Tip for the day: The avalanche advisory is typically posted on the website by 7:30AM. If we are experiencing difficulties with audio equipment or other of the many early morning tasks we need to perform, the free courtesy e-mail service and hotline phone may not be posted until shortly after. If anyone would like more information or has a problem with this please call us at the office (622-0095), instead of sending a mean spirited anonymous e-mail.