Our Week in Review highlights significant snowfall, weather, and avalanche events of the prior week. (Review the archived forecasts for the Salt Lake mountains.) The danger roses for the Salt Lake mountains from Friday, March 11 through Thursday, March 17: Summary: A storm on Sunday leaves 6-12" of snow as well as another smaller storm on Wednesday with 1-3". Several remote, human-triggered avalanches reported, with one very close call. Many of those involved in these avalanches are snow professionals, and Drew Hardesty's blog, "A Reckoning", covers this quite well. …

It began last Wednesday, March 9th. Nearly every day, an avalanche professional or very experienced backcountry skier has had a close call. In some cases, very close. Too close. The count is seven. (And these are the ones that have been reported to us). What is striking is that these are not beginner or intermediate backcountry skiers - these are advanced/experts. I've talked to most of them. There is another pattern here: ALL of these avalanches involve our PWL (persistent weak layer) of the Jan/Feb drought layer of facets. And this makes sense: OVER 70% of our …

Our Week in Review highlights significant snowfall, weather, and avalanche events of the prior week. (Review the archived forecasts for the Salt Lake mountains.) The danger roses for the Salt Lake mountains from Friday, March 4 through Thursday, March 10: Summary: The storminess week since December! Several human-triggered avalanches with a few near-misses. Most avalanche activity involved the weak layer of faceted snow from the January-February drought; Drew Hardesty's blog describes the formation of this weak layer and the avalanche activity failing on this layer …

I must have been reading Shakespeare when I first came across the term Deus Ex Machina. Loosely translated from the Latin, it means God Out of the Machine. It refers to a plot twist at the end of a play where the hero is saved against impossible odds. I pictured a backstage helper with a pulley and winch lowering a God out from above to provide deliverance. Not long ago, a friend fell through the ice on the Great Salt Lake while attempting to rescue her dog. Every attempt to get out of the 38 degree water onto the thin ice resulted in failure. I pictured steel double-hulled …

The Anatomy of an Avalanche Forecast Every day we go into the mountains, we need to be aware of the current avalanche hazards in order to come home safe at the end of the day. As an avalanche center, we strive to give the most accurate avalanche forecast to YOU every single day during the riding season. So what variables about snow and weather are included in these daily forecasts, and what can they tell us about avalanche hazards? The avalanche forecast includes these main components: Danger Rating: The avalanche danger scale is used by avalanche forecasters to relay the …

(February 25th slide in Neffs, pc-Meadows) For upper Little Cottonwood Canyon, January was the third driest on record. February was the driest on record. Records go back to the winter of 1944/1945. This long period of high pressure weakened the upper layers of the snowpack into facets: weak, sugary, cohesionless snow. In many areas, this layer would become 15-25cm thick. We knew this would become a problem when we finally receive significant storms. Unfortunately, snowfall has only arrived in dribs and drabs with no 12-hour snow …

Our Week in Review highlights significant snowfall, weather, and avalanche events of the prior week. (Review the archived forecasts for the Salt Lake mountains.) The danger roses for the Salt Lake mountains from Friday, February 25 through Thursday, March 3: Summary: Clear and dry with very warm temperatures by midweek. Several avalanches on northerly aspects, failing 1-2' down into old faceted snow that formed during the January/February drought. Friday, February 25: 1-4" of cold, dry snow is squeezed out of the remnants of a storm system. Several …