This avalanche advisory is provided through a partnership between the Tahoe National Forest and the Sierra Avalanche Center. This advisory covers the Central Sierra Nevada Mountains between Yuba Pass on the north and Ebbetts Pass on the south. Click here for a map of the forecast area. This advisory applies only to backcountry areas outside established ski area boundaries. This advisory describes general avalanche conditions and local variations always occur. This advisory expires 24 hours after the posted time unless otherwise noted. The information in this advisory is provided by the USDA Forest Service who is solely responsible for its content.

This advisory was posted on Monday, January 22, 2007 at 6:05 pm

The bottom line: Avalanche danger is LOW for all elevations with isolated pockets of MODERATE developing on steep, sun-exposed SW-S-SE aspects in the afternoon. Avalanche activity on these slopes will most likley be limited to small, wet, loose point release slides.

First of all we want to say a heartfelt "thank you" to everyone who has made a contribution to the Avalanche Center this week. The show of support in both cash donations and Kirkwood Ski Day ticket purchases has been amazing! We still have a long way to go to reach our '06-'07 budget and even farther to meet our fund raising goal, but thanks to your generosity we are much closer. For more details on the current financial situation please click here. Our next fund raiser is another ski day on February 4th at Homewood. Tickets are on sale now at Snowbomb.com. If you can't make it but would still like to help out, please make a tax deductible donation directly to us via Paypal or by sending a check to our address listed above, c/o the Truckee Ranger Station. Your support is what makes the Sierra Avalanche Center possible.

We returned to dry warm, weather in the mountains today. Temperatures above 7000' were above freezing for most of the day. This warming trend should continue at the higher elevations for the next few days. The winds also died down late last night and have continued to diminish throughout the day. They are forecasted to remain light through Wednesday.

The snowpack still has some faceted layers in it. These layers of typically weaker, sugary, snow grains are easiest to see around some of the more pronounced crusts in the snowpack where the overall snow depth is shallow. There are also some well formed depth hoar crystals that have been observed in the Mt Rose area. Even though some of these layers show weakness when isolated in layer bonding tests, it seems that the crusts and other more dense layers bounding them have remained fairly strong and are helping to maintain the overall strength of the snowpack. As the air temperatures warm up, the faceting is slowing down and a strengthening trend should begin in the snowpack.

By mid afternoon today the warm air temperatures and sunny skies softened the south facing slopes enough to provide some decent riding and had formed a thin melt-freeze crust over all but the N-NE aspects. This crust should become more widespread and well defined over the next few days. Those southerly slopes will likely provide the best sliding conditions over the next few days as they continue to go through a daily melt-freeze cycle. Even though these slopes are the most tempting, remember that there is not much snow on them and you have to choose your lines carefully to avoid shallowly buried obstacles. On other aspects it is getting very hard to find any consistent conditions. The surface changes from breakable crust, to hard wind slab, to ice crust, to soft drifts with almost every turn.

As the warming trend continues watch for human triggered wet, loose snow sluffs and "pinwheeling" to occur in the afternoon on the SW-S-SE slopes. These loose snow slides could be enough to knock you off your feet, over cliffs, or into rocks and trees.

The bottom line: Avalanche danger is LOW for all elevations with isolated pockets of MODERATE developing on steep, sun-exposed SW-S-SE aspects in the afternoon. Avalanche activity on these slopes will most likley be limited to small, wet, loose point release slides.

The next scheduled update to this advisory will occur tomorrow afternoon.

Andy Anderson , Avalanche Forecaster
Today's Central Sierra Weather Observations:
0600 temperature at Sierra Crest (8,700 feet):
22 deg. F
Max. temperature at Sierra Crest past 24 hours:
37 deg. F
Average wind direction at Sierra Crest past 24 hours:
northeasterly to easterly
Average wind speed at Sierra Crest past 24 hours:
20-30 mph
Maximum wind gust at Sierra Crest past 24 hours:
112 mph
New snow fall at 8,200 feet past 24 hours:
0 inches
Total snow depth at 8,200 feet:
35 inches
Mountain Weather Forecast For Tuesday:
Sunny skies
Temperature forecast for 8,000 to 9,000 feet:
43 deg. F
Ridgetop winds forecast for the Sierra Crest:
easterly 10 mph
Snowfall expected in the next 24 hours:
0 inches
2 Day Mountain Weather Forecast:

7000 to 8000 Feet
Tonight, clear skies with lows 17 to 27 degrees, F. Northeast winds 10 mph. Tuesday, sunny skies with daytime highs around 44 degrees F. Winds are forecasted to be light and variable.

Above 8000 Feet
Tonight, clear skies with lows 21 to 29 degrees, F. Northeast winds 10 mph. Tuesday, sunny skies with daytime highs around 43 degrees F. Winds are forecasted to be out of the east at 10mph.

The bottom line:

Andy Anderson - Avalanche Forecaster, Tahoe National Forest

Weather Observations from along the Sierra Crest between 8200 ft and 8800 ft:

0600 temperature:	deg. F.
Max. temperature in the last 24 hours:	deg. F.
Average wind direction during the last 24 hours:
Average wind speed during the last 24 hours:	mph
Maximum wind gust in the last 24 hours:	mph
New snowfall in the last 24 hours:	O inches
Total snow depth:	inches

Two-Day Mountain Weather Forecast - Produced in partnership with the Reno NWS

For 7000-8000 ft:
	Monday:	Monday Night:	Tuesday:
Weather:
Temperatures:	deg. F.	deg. F.	deg. F.
Wind direction:
Wind speed:
Expected snowfall:	O in.	O in.	O in.
For 8000-9000 ft:
	Monday:	Monday Night:	Tuesday:
Weather:
Temperatures:	deg. F.	deg. F.	deg. F.
Wind direction:
Wind speed:
Expected snowfall:	O in.	O in.	O in.