2021-2022 Annual Report - Sawtooth Avalanche Center

Snowpack Summary This season re-defined “feast or famine” conditions, suggesting—once again—that abnormal may in fact be the new normal.

We were off and running when a warm storm near the end of October provided a supportable 2-3’ snowpack. We (wrongly) assumed the early start to the season was a harbinger of an epic, record-setting winter—but we’ll get to that later. In the following weeks, very warm temperatures and sunny skies reduced the snowpack to dirt on many slopes. The snow that lingered on shaded slopes turned to hard melt-freeze crusts.

The next month delivered a few small storms interspersed with both very warm and cold spells. Particularly dry weather during late November and early December produced a widespread layer of facets sitting atop a hard crust—at least where the snowpack survived the early season thaw. This facet/crust layer became the season’s primary weak layer when it was buried on December 11th.

Snowfall finally returned—with a vengeance. December 11th to January 7th was one of the snowiest periods in memory. An estimated 100” (on Baldy) to 200” (Vienna Mine) of snow fell during this period, coming in three distinct 5-7 day storm cycles. Most SNOTEL stations were sitting at 70-80% of normal snowpack prior to this period and were 140-150% of average when the dust settled on January 7th.

Not surprisingly, these large storms falling on a well-developed weak layer produced dangerous avalanche conditions. Our first