Payette Avalanche Center » Pro Observation

Observation Date:

December 28, 2022

Submitted:

December 29, 2022

Observer:

PAC - George Halcom

Zone or Region:

Tamarack Out of Bounds

Location:

West Mountain North of Tamarack Resort near Lunch Spot

Recent Avalanches?

Yes

Cracking?

Isolated

Collapsing?

Isolated

While walking down from the snowmobile to our pit location just below the ridgeline on the East aspect I had 1 whumph noise in the snowpack. We did have some cracking in the surface on exposed ridges where South winds were actively forming slabs and transporting snow.

Stability Rating:

Fair

Confidence in Rating:

Moderate

Stability Trend:

Steady

Old and new wind slabs are going to be your primary concern over the next couple of days. Triggering deeper weak layers is going to be difficult, but if you did get the upper snowpack to go, you could get a really big avalanche/ overload the buried surface hoar that formed 12/18 that is still producing ECTP27 in our snowpit on Wednesday 12/28...The snowpack has gotten saturated from heavy rains below 7200' and was still not frozen as of Wednesday. The lower snowpack in the lower elevations will likely solidify after a few cold days and nights and eliminate any wet loose potential like some of the natural evidence seen from our rain event early in the week that formed a stout rain crust that is now buried in the upper foot of the snowpack.