UDOT PLANNED AVALANCHE CLOSURES!!

Forecast for the Logan Area Mountains

Toby Weed
Issued by Toby Weed for
Tuesday, December 26, 2017

There is a HIGH avalanche danger on drifted upper elevation slopes in the backcountry. Dangerous avalanche conditions exist at all elevations and human triggered avalanches are likely.

  • You could trigger avalanches from a distance or from below.
  • Avoid travel in avalanche terrain. Play in the flat meadows and on low angled slopes, well away from the steep hills.
  • Stay off of and out from under steep slopes and obvious or historic avalanche paths.
Low
Moderate
Considerable
High
Extreme
Learn how to read the forecast here
Avalanche Warning

THE FOREST SERVICE UTAH AVALANCHE CENTER IN SALT LAKE CITY HAS CONTINUED A BACKCOUNTRY AVALANCHE WARNING.

* TIMING...IN EFFECT FROM 6 AM MST THIS MORNING TO 6 AM MST WEDNESDAY.

* AFFECTED AREA...FOR THE MOUNTAINS OF NORTHERN UTAH INCLUDING THE BEAR RIVER RANGE, WESTERN UINTAS, AND ALL THE WASATCH RANGE INCLUDING THE OGDEN, PROVO, SALT LAKE AND PARK CITY AREA MOUNTAINS.

* AVALANCHE DANGER...THE AVALANCHE DANGER FOR THE WARNING AREA IS HIGH TODAY.

* REASON/IMPACTS...RECENT SNOW AND WIND HAS CREATED WIDESPREAD AREAS OF UNSTABLE SNOW. HUMAN TRIGGERED AVALANCHES ARE LIKELY. AVALANCHES CAN BE TRIGGERED REMOTELY FROM A DISTANCE AND FROM BELOW. STAY OFF OF AND OUT FROM UNDER SLOPES STEEPER THAN 30 DEGREES.

BACKCOUNTRY TRAVELERS SHOULD CONSULT WWW.UTAHAVALANCHECENTER.ORG OR CALL 1-888-999-4019 FOR MORE DETAILED INFORMATION. THIS WARNING DOES NOT APPLY TO SKI AREAS WHERE AVALANCHE HAZARD REDUCTION MEASURES ARE PERFORMED.

Special Announcements

We're excited to introduce for the 2017/2018 winter the Utah Avalanche Center podcast, hosted by forecaster Drew Hardesty and produced by KUER's Benjamin Bombard. The podcast will include engaging stories, interviews, and lessons learned - all things avalanche to help keep people on top of the snow instead of buried beneath it - and easily found on ITunes, Stitcher, the UAC blog, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Weather and Snow

Lots of heavy new snow and drifting from strong west winds overloaded widespread weak sugary snow, and dangerous avalanche conditions exist in the backcountry. The Tony Grove Snotel at 8400' reports 21°F and 48 inches of total snow containing 110% of normal SWE (Snow Water Equivalent). The site recorded 8" of new snow yesterday, with 1"SWE. 17 inches of new snow accumulated Saturday, with 3.9" SWE at the site since Friday, 12/22/17. It's 14°F at the 9700' CSI Logan Peak weather station, and the wind sensor is not reading due to ice. It is quite windy at the UDOT Hwy 89 summit weather station with 24 mph west wind and gusts of 35 mph

  • Shallow early season snow conditions exist, and fresh powder is now hiding some big rocks. Travel cautiously and keep your speed down.

Recent Avalanches


We received reports of numerous natural, easily triggered, and remote triggered soft slab avalanches across the Logan Zone Saturday 12/23/17.


Natural avalanches were observed in the Tony Grove Lake Area, the Wellsville Mountain Wilderness, and in the Cub River Area. Several large avalanches were remotely triggered on Christmas Day in the Central Wasatch.

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

Across the Logan Zone, wind slabs formed on weak preexisting snow. Very dangerous wind slab avalanche conditions exist in exposed terrain at upper elevations, with natural activity and large avalanches possible. Human triggered avalanches are likely on drifted slopes at all elevations.

  • You could trigger large wind slab avalanches from a distance or below.
  • Wind slabs, consisting of stiffer, drifted snow may be chalky in appearance and might produce hollow sounds.
  • Avoid fresh drifts in steep terrain near ridges and in and around terrain features like gullies, saddles, rock bands, scoops, and sub-ridges.
Avalanche Problem #2
Persistent Weak Layer
Type
Location
Likelihood
Size
Description

Along with the gift of powder snow, Santa also brought a slab made up of stronger snow that now sits precariously upon widespread weak sugary snow formed during the prolonged December high pressure system. Persistent slab avalanches are likely even in sheltered areas.

  • Pay attention to possible signs of instability like cracking and whumpfing or collapsing.
  • Avalanches might be triggered remotely, from a distance, or worse, from below.
  • A ride in even a small avalanche could be particularly dangerous now due to hard underlying snow and real potential for being dragged through rocks or deadfall below.
Additional Information

A generally dry and mild west-northwest flow aloft will remain over the region through the rest of the week.

  • Today will be partly sunny, with a high temperature at 8500' near 24°F and 15 mph west wind.
  • There's a chance of a little snow late tonight. It'll be mostly cloudy with 15 mph west wind and temperature rising to around 22°F by morning.
  • It'll be mostly cloudy tomorrow with a chance of snow, but not much in the way of accumulation is expected. A high temperature of 28°F and 15 to 20 mph west wind.
General Announcements

Discount lift tickets for Alta, Snowbird, Brighton, Solitude, Deer Valley, Snowbasin, and Beaver Mountain are now available, donated by the resorts to benefit the Utah Avalanche Center. Details and order information here. All proceeds go towards paying for avalanche forecasting and education!

Now is a great time to practice companion rescue techniques with your backcountry partners. Here's our rescue practice video.

Go HERE for a list of UAC classes.

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

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.

Remember your information can save lives. If you see anything we should know about, please help us out by submitting snow and avalanche observations. You can also call us at 801-524-5304, email by clicking HERE, or include #utavy in your tweet or Instagram.

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 occur.