Area resorts warn skiers to heed avalanche advisory

It probably comes as no surprise that the region’s ski areas are, as the Web site for Schweitzer Mountain Resort proclaims, “a winter wonderland!”

But Schweitzer warned of extreme avalanche danger and asked skiers to stick to groomed trails. Schweitzer operators expect to have all runs open by Saturday.

Forty-nine Degrees North ski area was expected to reopen today, but there will be no Saturday-night skiing this week because of the extreme cold.

Mt. Spokane Ski and Snowboard Park planned to open today.

A combination of heavy snow and wind on an unstable base has created considerable avalanche hazard on the region’s higher slopes, according to an advisory issued Thursday afternoon.

In some areas of the Idaho Panhandle National Forest Advisory Area higher than 5,000 feet, “natural avalanches are possible and human triggered avalanches are probable,” said Kevin Davis, Forest Service Avalanche Center director in Sandpoint.

The Silver Mountain Ski Patrol earned its hazard pay getting slopes ready for Thursday’s opening, Davis said.

“They triggered climax avalanches to the ground on Wardner Peak’s north aspects,” he said. “They also triggered Class 3 slides – big enough to destroy your car – that piled up debris 6 to 8 feet deep.”

Ski patrols and avalanche forecasters from Silver Mountain north to the Cabinet Mountains were finding a weak base layer of snow that will likely make the heavy snowpack dangerous “for some time to come,” Davis said.