UDOT PLANNED AVALANCHE CLOSURES!!

Forecast for the Provo Area Mountains

Drew Hardesty
Issued by Drew Hardesty for
Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Most terrain has an overall LOW avalanche danger. Continue to follow safe backcountry protocol by only putting one person on a slope at a time. Anticipate sluffing of the snow surface on the steeper high elevation shady terrain.

Low
Moderate
Considerable
High
Extreme
Learn how to read the forecast here
Special Announcements

PROVO CANYON - Intermittent closures on US189 from 10:00am to 1:30pm on Dec 10, 2014 from Canyon Glen Park to Vivian Park for UDOT avalanche control work.

Evelyn will be the featured speaker for tonight's Community Avalanche Talk at Treasure Mountain Jr. High School in Park City at 6:30pm. These are great free events sponsored by the Canyons Pro Ski Patrol Association.















Weather and Snow

Skies are clear to partly cloudy, temps in the upper 20s to mid-30s, winds hardly a whisper. Riding conditions consist of supportable and softening melt-freeze crusts on the southern end of the compass, decent recycled powder in the shadows. Total depths out there are roughly 12-18" on the ground.

These days it seems like everybody and their dog writes a Blog...and we decided to get into the game a couple years ago. Below is the current snapshot of the snowpack across the upper Colorado Basin states (Wyoming, Utah, Colorado). I've elaborated on this a touch more here -

Recent Avalanches

No activity of note but for some shallow surface sluffs in the ever-weakening surface snow in the steeper northerly terrain.

If "Recent Activity" can include the last 10 seasons, I took a look at the last 10 years of avalanche fatalities across the state. What's the trend? Where do they occur...and to whom? One might look at a running average of 4 fatalities/year against explosive growth in backcountry use over the past 10 years and draw any number of conclusions.

Ad
Avalanche Problem #1
Wind Drifted Snow
Type
Location
Likelihood
Size
Description

Most of the danger includes the potential for a slide-for-life on the steep southerly pre-thaw crusts, the off-chance of getting knocked off your feet by a shallow surface sluff on the steep shady terrain, or getting tripped up in the graveyard of rocks, stumps, or dead-fall in the thinner snowpack areas.

Additional Information

Another day of high and dry. Temps will warm into the 40s in the alpine and winds should remain light and variable. A Pacific storm off the coast will move inland and through the intermountain west by late Friday and last through early Sunday. Ahead of the trof, temps and winds increase by early Friday, with southerly winds expected in the 30-40mph range. The weather models suggest the storm will split just prior to entering the state, though we should be lined up for a 4-8" event. In any event, this marks the beginning of a somewhat more progressive weather pattern with another perhaps splitting storm due to arrive on Tuesday.

General Announcements

Remember your information can save lives. If you see anything we should know about, please participate in the creation of our own community avalanche advisory by submitting snow and avalanche conditions. You can also call us at 801-524-5304, email by clicking HERE, or include #utavy in your tweet or Instagram.

If you trigger an avalanche in the backcountry - especially if you are adjacent to a ski area – please call the following teams to alert them to the slide and whether anyone is missing or not. Rescue teams can be exposed to significant hazard when responding to avalanches, and do not want to do so when unneeded. Thanks.

Salt Lake and Park City – Alta Central (801-742-2033), Canyons Resort Dispatch (435-615-3322)

Snowbasin Resort Dispatch (801-620-1017), Powder Mountain Dispatch (801-745-3772 x 123).

Sundance Dispatch (801-223-4150)

EMAIL ADVISORY If you would like to get the daily advisory by email you will need to subscribe here.​

DAWN PATROL Hotline updated daily by 5-530am - 888-999-4019 option 8.

Twitter Updates for your mobile phone - DETAILS

UDOT canyon closures: LINK TO UDOT

Utah Avalanche Center mobile app - Get your advisory on your iPhone along with great navigation and rescue tools.

Wasatch Powderbird Guides Blog/Itinerary for the Day.

Lost or Found something in the backcountry? - http://nolofo.com/

Ski Utah mobile snow updates

Discount lift tickets will soon be available at Backcountry.com - Thanks to Ski Utah and the Utah Resorts. All proceeds go towards paying for Utah Avalanche Center avalanche and mountain weather advisories.

To those skinning uphill at resorts: it is your responsibility to know the resort policy on uphill travel. You can see the uphill travel policy for each resort here. IMPORTANT: Before skinning or hiking at a resort under new snow conditions, check in with Ski Patrol. Resorts can restrict or cut off access if incompatible with control and grooming operations.

Benefit the Utah Avalanche Center when you shop from Backcountry.com or REI: Click this link for Backcountry.com or this link to REI, shop, and they will donate a percent of your purchase price to the UAC. Both offer free shipping (with some conditions) so this costs you nothing!

Benefit the Utah Avalanche Center when you buy or sell on ebay - set the Utah Avalanche Center as a favorite non-profit in your ebay account here and click on ebay gives when you buy or sell. You can choose to have your seller fees donated to the UAC, which doesn't cost you a penny.

This information does not apply to developed ski areas or highways where avalanche control is normally done. This advisory is from the U.S.D.A. Forest Service, which is solely responsible for its content. This advisory describes general avalanche conditions and local variations always exist.