Avalanche conditions in mountains are high

Wednesday, February 8, 2006

A snowplow clears an avalanche on the road to Pine last week that blocked more than half a mile of road under 10-20 feet of snow.

Avalanche conditions in the mountains of northern Elmore County are "the worst I've seen in 20 years," according to Jim Noldand, director of the Elmore County Search and Rescue unit.

More than a half mile of road near Curleau Docks at Anderson Ranch Reservoir on the road to Pine was closed for a 24-hour period last week after it was hit by a major slide. No injuries were reported but Noland says the danger has never been higher.

Noland, who sponsors several avalanche awareness classes every year, ventured up to the Pine/Featherville area to take in the situation first hand.

"I was up there to help a friend dig his place out and I must have seen at least 25 slides that occurred in the past week," he said. "There was hardly a hill that hadn't seen some sort of avalanche activity."

According to Noland, the people who need to be most aware of the current conditions are snowmobilers.

"Anybody operating a machine up there right now needs to be very cautious," he said.

"Due to the recent high temperatures, there is at least one real unstable layer of snow about 1-2 feet below the surface that could break at any time," he said.

Elmore County boasts some of the best and most accessible snowmobile trails in the state and Noland says this time of the year the activity is at its height.

Jump-offs like Cat's Creek and Trinity Lakes Snow Park, are enormously popular after a big snowfall.

"On any given day, we have more than 100 machines come through Trinity alone," said Noland. "Right now there is probably more than that."

At last week's end, snowfall totals were over five feet at Featherville and close to 12 feet at the Trinity Lakes Guard Station.

Still, all snowmobile trails remain open to the public and snow removal teams are working diligently to keep all accessible roads clear as well.

The snowplow operators also serve another purpose, according to Noland.

"The guys in the snowplows are trying to advise people on the severity of avalanche hazards as they travel into those areas," he said.

Noland said his team knows avalanches are going to occur, they only hope that they don't see any that cause serious harm or injury.

For now, all Noland and other emergency workers can do is attempt to inform people headed into the back country about avalanche awareness and the necessary precautions to take.

"It's great snow out there right now," Noland said. "But that also means the avalanche situation is extreme too."

"We want everyone to have a good time but we also want them to be safe."

More information on avalanche awareness and current conditions for the Sawtooth National Forest is available by visiting the US Forest Service's avalanche website at www.avalanche.org/~svavctr/adv_current.php.