UDOT avalanche forecaster Craig Patterson died in an avalanche near Kessler Peak in Big Cottonwood Canyon in the Salt Lake Area Mountains late yesterday. Our deepest sympathy goes out to his family and friends.
The Tony Grove Snotel reports 26 degrees and 58 inches of total snow, containing 64% of average water for the date. The station recorded a couple feet of accumulation and 3.2 inches of snow-water equivalent in the last week, (since last Friday morning.) The CSI Logan Peak weather station at 9700' reports 23 degrees and northwest winds averaging a bit over 20 mph this morning.
Tuesday's very windy storm consisted of a strong and somewhat unusual northeasterly (wrap around and up-slope) flow. An extraordinary amount of new snow fell Monday night and Tuesday on the eastern side of the Bear River Range, while strong northeast winds battered the high peaks and the west side of the range. The UDOT Hwy 89 Logan Summit weather station reported 25 inches of new snow, while the Campbell Scientific weather station was blasted by northeast winds with 55 mph average wind speeds and 80 mph gusts. This resulted in widely varied snow conditions, with widespread wind damage and extensive drifting. There is much less fresh snow on the west side of the Bear River Range, but more wind damage. Solar warming was the issue yesterday, and rapid warming from the the high angled sun affected the fresh snow, moistening the surface which will have refrozen into crusts of varying thickness overnight.
Video Observation, 4-9-2013, Swan Flats Area
Bruce Tremper and Drew Hardesty of the Utah Avalanche Center are on their way up to the site of yesterday's tragic avalanche accident in Big Cottonwood Canyon in the Salt Lake Area Mountains this morning, and will submit a report on this Website as soon as they can.
No significant new avalanches were reported recently in the Logan Area, but I certainly wouldn't be surprised to hear of or observe evidence of some from this week, and only a few people have been out in the backcountry in the last few days.....
Here's a link to our updated Avalanche List.
