Most of Idaho’s mountains have below average snowpack for this time of year, but they're still vulnerable to avalanches.
Scott Savage, the director of the Sawtooth Avalanche Center, said most of the snow in the mountains fell in October of November, and when that snow sits around, it becomes a weak layer that's sugary and crumbly.
“When we put big storms on top of that, we will have avalanches," Savage said. "It’s not a matter of if we’re going to see avalanches, it’s a matter of when.”
The center is expecting a lot of avalanche activity when it starts snowing more.
Savage said he hopes last year’s record snow year for central Idaho is still top of mind, encouraging people to prepare. Center staff recorded 881 significant avalanches, 61 of which were human-triggered. Slides dammed the Big Wood River and hit more than 15 structures. There were two fatal accidents, and Savage said there were many more close calls.
“Their car got knocked off the road a little bit, or they had an avalanche come down and someone had to run sideways to get out of the way of it," he said. "Instead of once every five years hearing about something like that, we just kept hearing stories about that into the summer.”
The Sawtooth Avalanche Center is hosting free awareness presentations in Boise, Twin Falls and Ketchum in January, and plans to release an educational video in Spanish. Also new this year is an app called Avy: Avalanche & Weather Info, started by the Sawtooth center and the avalanche center based near Seattle. Users can access the avalanche and weather forecasts and can also submit observations.
Find reporter Rachel Cohen on Twitter @racheld_cohen
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