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Forecast for the Ogden Area Mountains

Drew Hardesty
Issued by Drew Hardesty for
Thursday, November 24, 2016

Most terrain still has a Low danger. A Moderate danger exists in steep wind-drifted terrain primarily in the upper elevations. Remember that we often have early season accidents and involvements as powder-fever tends to over-rule rational, conservative decision-making. Remember that the traumatic injury is likely with any incident due to the still-thin coverage.

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

Generally speaking, if you're heading to a ski area please check in with the individual ski resort and find out their uphill traffic policies. If you walk up one ski area with another adjacent to it, please respect and check in with the sister resort before riding down into their resort. More info and links to the resorts here.

Weather and Snow

This storm was no turkey. (Sorry about that.) The cold front moved in like a freight train around dinnertime last night with storm totals in the 4-6" range. 12-18" of snow sit in in the upper elevations allowing for fair, if tentative, travel. Mind the still thinly veiled rocks, stumps, and deadfall.

Skies are clearing. Temps have plummeted to the teens up high, the low 20s down low. Gustiest during and just after frontal passage, the west-northwest winds are now generally less than 15mph on both Mt. Ogden and James Peak.

Recent Avalanches

None

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

New wind drifts up to a foot are possible in the highest terrain and likely sensitive to the weight of a person. Look for and avoid any smooth, rounded snow feature in steeper terrain.

Hot Tip - Cracking and collapsing are sure signs of localized instability.

Note: conditions will likely improve as the day wears on.

Avalanche Problem #2
New Snow
Type
Location
Likelihood
Size
Description

Avalanche sensitivity is more severe during and just after the storm. Test slopes and hand pits will allow for the gathering of information this morning until the snow snow stabilizes.

Avalanche Problem #3
Persistent Weak Layer
Type
Location
Likelihood
Size
Description

Yesterday, I triggered a wind slab in the upper Cottonwoods. Interesting to note that yesterday's hard wind slab remained within the new snow and did not step down into the older underlying weak faceted snow near the ground. The Ogden area mountains have a couple inches of weak faceted snow near the base of the snowpack, but this is limited to the highest, shady locations. It's possible that any new snow slide may step down into this older layering. Photo from Alta, below, as an example, though the Ogden snowpack is about half of this.

Additional Information

We'll have clearing skies, mountain temps in the low 20s, and 15mph winds from the west and northwest. Ridging moves in, albeit briefly, ahead of another large scale storm impacting the intermountain west starting late Saturday through Tuesday. It looks to be a southern Utah special, but we may potentially see another decent foot of snow over that time period. In the meantime, temps will warm toward freezing up high later tomorrow with increasing southwest to south winds tomorrow through Saturday.

General Announcements

Remember your information can save lives. If you see anything we should know about, please help us out 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.

To get help in an emergency (to request a rescue) in the Wasatch, call 911. Be prepared to give your GPS coordinates or the run name. Dispatchers have a copy of the Wasatch Backcountry Ski map.

Backcountry Emergencies. It outlines your step-by-step method in the event of a winter backcountry incident.

If you trigger an avalanche in the backcountry, but no one is hurt and you do not need assistance, please notify the nearest ski area dispatch to avoid a needless response by rescue teams. Thanks.

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, or on Twitter, follow @UDOTavy, @CanyonAlerts or @AltaCentral

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

Powderbird Helicopter Skiing - Blog/itinerary for the day

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

Ski Utah mobile snow updates

To those skinning uphill at resorts: it is critical to know the resort policy on uphill travel. You can see the uphill travel policy for each resort here.

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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.