Avalanche danger is high in mountains

Avalanche conditions are "extremely high" in the the mountains north of Mountain Home, according to Jim Noland, head of the Elmore County Search and Rescue team, who urged anyone recreating in the mountain areas to exercise extreme caution.

An avalanche in in the Paradise area, about four miles south of Featherville on the Pine-Featherville road, partially closed a lane of the road last Thursday. One vehicle went off the road trying to avoid the slide.

A Mountain Home Highway District snowplow in the area was able to rapidly respond to the slide, which was cleared within a few hours.

Noland said Search and Rescue had met that very morning to discuss possible scenarios concerning avalanche conditions in the mountains.

"We had the worst possible weather up there," to create avalanche conditions, he said. "We had about five inches of wet, heavy snow, followed by ten inches of light, fluffy snow, followed by about another ten inches of wet, heavy snow on top of that."

Those conditions make for extremely unstable snowpack conditions.

And, Noland noted, it's not necessarily the highest and steepest slopes that are the most dangerous. Most slides, he said, occur on slopes of roughly 30 degrees.

"Everywhere you go up there right now, you should be cautious," he said.