With a storm coming in for the weekend, it's extremely important to map the pre-existing snow to know if the eitherwind blown snow and new snow will overload any weak layers. In this case, the weak layer will be the present snow surface. The long period of clear skies this past week or more has created very weak snow on the surface, which we call near-surface faceted snow as well as surface hoar. The strong sun created slick sun crusts on the sun exposed slopes. So here is the general snow surface pattern by aspect and elevation: Here's a good recent video …

We all need to take the time to practice with our avalanche rescue equipment... It's easy to do, doesn't take much time,helps to make sure our equipment is functioning correctly, and could go along way towards saving lives in the backcountry. Here's a short video we did of our practice in the Tony Grove Area yesterday, (12-10-2014)

Looking over the last 10 winters at the 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. At first glance, one might be lulled into looking at these numbers as numbers; but intruth each number is a person - a friend, husband, wife, child, or colleague. The numbers belie the real storiespunctuated by real events with real people affected by close calls and, unfortunately, …

Weeks of high pressure and a slowly rehabbing meniscus havegot me to thinking on a few things, which is usuallya dangerous proposition. We live beyond - as the author and historian Wallace Stegnerdescribed - the 100th meridian in North America, a rough approximation of the dividing line between thoselands which require irrigation...and those that don't. Any prospective student of the arid West will know of the one armed major pushing off from Green River Wyoming in 1869 and will soon have a bookshelf full of books like Reisner's Cadillac Desert andStegner's Beyond the …

Shopping for a Christmas beacon for yourself of someone you love? The amazing Steve Achelis has done a major update to his popular site, BeaconReviews.com. Steve has painstakingllytested and reviewed all the beacons. It's the only independent beacon review site I'm aware of. And he has done this on his own dime, just because it's a job that needs to be done. Here's a sample page of the beacon comparison page: Steve is also the same guy who published the Wasatch Backcountry Skiing map, which is the definitive source forall the place names for backcountry runs in the …

Press Release For Immediate Release Contacts: Craig Gordon 801-231-2170 Trent Meisenheimer: (801) 455-7239 Utah Avalanche Center http://www.utahavalanchecenter.org KNOWLEDGE IS POWDER VIDEO FOR SNOWMOBILERS SALT LAKE CITY, November 4, 2012 -- Utah Avalanche Center—public safety in avalanche terrain. The Utah Avalanche Center, with major funding from the International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association, has released an exciting 9-minute, avalanche safety video for snowmobilers. Starting today, you can view it on Vimeo and it will be available for download …

photos: Graham Robertson Reprint, with permission from Backcountry Magazine. For hardcopy, follow this link. Drew Hardesty has spent the last 15 years forecasting for the Utah Avalanche Center, the last 10 as a Jenny Lake Climbing Ranger in the Teton Range. In most cases,he views risk as being collectively assumed rather than personally accepted.