Wallowa Avalanche Center

Photo taken 2/26. Above Pine Lakes, Southern Wallowas

Avalanche Rescue Gear:

Please remember you must wear an avalanche transceiver on your person, and your shovel and probe must be in your backpack. Carrying any of these pieces of rescue gear on your snowmobile tunnel won’t help you in an accident. Our condolences to the friends and family of the snowbiker in UT, who was caught and killed in a large avalanche on Sunday.

Recent Fatal Avalanches

Our sincerest condolences go out to the friends, family, and loved ones of all the recent avalanche victims. Since February 17th, we have lost 12 individuals across California, Utah, and Idaho. Local avalanche centers are currently collecting field data to better understand how the snowpack contributed to these accidents. This is a time to not place judgment or point fingers, but to reflect on our own decision-making and acknowledge those who’ve recently perished. We also want to show our gratitude to local law enforcement, SAR teams, and avalanche forecasters who are called upon to assist with rescue efforts, recovery, and accident reporting. These jobs are very challenging, both mentally and physically.

Persistent Slabs:

For those who follow along with our avalanche forecasts, you should have noticed we added a new avalanche problem this past weekend. We recommend reading our Blog Post to learn more about Persistent Slabs. “A persistent slab is a dangerous, often unpredictable avalanche problem occurring when a cohesive layer of snow (slab) sits upon a persistent weak layer (such as surface hoar, depth hoar, or facets). Unlike storm slabs, these can persist for weeks or months, triggering remotely or long after storms.” (CAIC)

As forecasters, we often talk about surface instabilities and snowpack instabilities. Storm and wind slabs would be two avalanche problems that would go in the surface instability category. Persistent slabs are snowpack instabilities, where weak snow grains are buried and remain potentially dangerous for extended periods.

Currently, we have more than one weak layer in the snowpack we are tracking. These weak layers don’t exist at all elevations or aspects, which means you need to read the avalanche forecast and use terrain to limit your exposure. One of the scariest parts about dealing with a Persistent Slab is, as the name suggests, it can persist and remain dangerous for a long time, and as humans, we are impatient.

Please do your homework, read our forecasts, read observations, know the aspect and elevation of the terrain you’re recreating in, and use conservative route selection and decision-making.