This is Janet Kellam of the Sawtooth National Forest Avalanche Center
 with your Backcountry Avalanche Advisory and Weather Forecast for
 Saturday, January 26, 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.

 Special Announcement:
 Avalanche Awareness Week begins next week. Tuesday evening from 7-8PM
 is a free Avalanche Awareness class. Room 301 at the Community Campus
 in Hailey. No sign up needed, just show up before 7:00.
 Bottom Line:
 Today the avalanche danger is estimated to be MODERATE. Human
 triggered avalanches remain possible on steeper slopes. The greatest
 danger will be where recent deposits of wind drifted snow are
 encountered or where a denser slab of snow overlies very weak and
 punchy snow.

 Outlook: The avalanche danger will rapidly increase on Sunday due to a
 powerful winter storm entering our region tonight. We may issue an
 avalanche warning as the storm intensifies.

 Primary Avalanche Concern:
 
 
 
 
 Southeast to southwest winds played havoc with snow surfaces in any
 exposed areas, forming soft to semi- dense wind slabs at all
 elevations. Most reports indicate the wind slabs were not as sensitive
 as we expected, but continue to watch for cracking and collapsing of
 new and older wind slabs on steeper slopes today.

 In many cases a couple generations of wind slabs have formed on top of
 weak faceted snow, meaning the instabilities will linger. Yesterday I
 had at least several collapses and whumps of older wind slabs while
 traveling along ridgelines out Lake Creek.

 Secondary Avalanche Concern:
 
 
 
 
 Only a few slides were observed yesterday, and all seemed to be
 related to areas of very weak, shallow snowpack. Wind and sun helped
 to produce a cohesive slab on some slopes. Loose snow sluffs were
 running fast and will continue to do so today due to the weak faceted
 snow beneath Thursdays snow. Our champagne powder didnt add much load
 to the existing snowpack
 Although we have not gotten much new snowload for some time and
 conditions show decent stability for today, the Central and South
 Valley consists of very weak snow both at the surface and near the
 ground. Steeper slopes still warrant a careful look at how weak the
 layering is and how much of a slab is lying on top of it. Additional
 wind drifting today may produce more of a load and slab on the weak
 layers.

 If we get the forecast weather, Sundays storm stands a good chance of
 overloading the weak snowpack areas and producing quite a few
 avalanches, some may be large. The North Valley and regions with a
 deeper snowpack will have concerns for new snow avalanches and
 isolated areas of weaker snow.

 Current Conditions:
 Baldy reported up to 12 inches of crystalline powder yesterday morning
 while Galena Summit received 4 to 5 inches. Even where deepest, the
 snow was so light you could easily feel the underlying snow surfaces
 and whether it was delightful powder or scratchy crusts.

 Air temperatures warmed up in the sun and the new snow became sticky
 on warmer aspects but may not have developed surface crusts. Otherwise
 the snow stayed remarkably cold and light. Good news-bad news because
 Sundays warm and windy storm will fall on anywhere from a few inches
 to 12 inches of extremely light dry snow and faceted snow, creating a
 top heavy snowpack.

 Winds calmed down yesterday, especially around Baldy. 20 to 30 mph
 gusts did continue to transport snow along high elevation ridgelines.

 High elevation weather stations indicate the winds are beginning to
 increase again from the west and southwest.

 9,000 to 10,000ft temperatures are in the teens at 6AM as warm air
 pushes in ahead of the front. The valley floor is cooler at 9 degrees.

 Mountain Weather Forecast:
 Todays forecast calls for light snow accumulating only an inch or two
 of new. The storm will begin tonight with 100% chance of precipitation
 with 1 to 2 feet of snow possible by the end of the day Sunday.

 Temperatures are expected to be warmer than yesterday rising to 20 to
 25 degrees at upper elevations, dropping into the teens tonight. The
 valley floor could reach 32 degrees mid day. Winds will be from the
 southwest blowing in the teens with stronger gusts, becoming much
 stronger by tomorrow afternoon.