When the first significant storm paints the peaks white and we're getting stoked for winter, it's time to start thinking about how that first layer will affect snowpack stability during the upcoming season. In a perfect world, it will keep right on dumping and we'll be ripping deep, stable snow by Christmas. But, as is often the case, we could see a return of high pressure, and then we'll be left with snowed in bike trails, cold crags, and a rotting foundation for our snowpack. When shallow snow sits on the ground under cold clear skies it begins to transform, or …

The avalanche danger was Low. After skiing the Woolly Hole beneath the north ridge of Timp and gliding over under the stepped couloirs that guard the upper Pika cirque, the skis went on the pack and up the right-most little cooler (Americans, including myself can never pronounce "couloir", especially with a good French accent). Halfway up, I start kicking into some hard wind slab. Small bits of hard wind slab cracked out as I ascended, and I noted that the hard shallow wind deposit was getting thicker and heavier as I went. I pawed down to find small …

No Name 02/15/2016 Salt Lake No Name Bowl Skier 6" 150 Northeast 9400 New Snow/Old Snow Interface Details 02/2/2016 Salt Lake No Name Bowl Skier …

Summer's eve, how can falling ice have broken my favorite walking stick? Utah Avalanche Center forecaster Tom Kimbrough's tribute to colleague Seth Shaw who was killed in an ice fall in Alaska May 2000. It was around Memorial Day. An open letter to Barbara Rand, Robin Davenport and the friends and family of Kip Rand Dear Mrs. Rand; I never met your son, but I feel like I knew him all the same. I too was hired as an avalanche forecaster when I was 29 years old. This was long …

From Ed LaChapelle's essay The Ascending Spiral in The Avalanche Review 24.1 (photo credit -Wilburn and Jean Pickett Photograph Collection, University of Utah Marriott library archives) “Do nothing in haste”......this speaks loud and clear to the pressures of time, planning and economics, plus the perpetual urge to action that drives so much of our modern life. Here is where the human factor in avalanche-related decisions comes to the fore. And this brings us to Elbert’s Rule. When I first worked at Alta in the 1950’s, the daily mail was …

In the aftermath of the 1986 space shuttle Challenger disaster, a great deal of effort and resources went into finding out and understanding What Went Wrong. Seven astronauts were killed and the event put a dent into the country's collective confidence in NASA, to put it mildly. Ultimately, the blame was pinned upon the O-rings - or more specifically the putty used in concert with the O-rings - for improperly sealing in the gases used for the solid rocket boosters, leading to the explosion. In her 1996 book, The Challenger Launch Decision : Risky Technology, Culture, and Deviance …

Ever wonder how the snow on north aspects can stay cold and dry during such warm weather? There is a big difference between air temperature and snow surface temperature. This is why the snow can refreeze even on relatively warm nights if the skies are clear. Snow loses heat very efficiently to clear skies at night then warms during the day as air temperatures warm. See the graph below showing air temperature vs snow temperature along Bunnells Ridge (8800') just south of Provo Canyon during the last 2 days. Notice that snow temperatures at night got as low as 6 degrees F …