Looks like about 6 inches of new snow accumulated on upper elevations with yesterday's storm, with .05" SWE. There is not much more than a foot or so of total settled snow on select upper elevation slopes, barely enough to cover the rocks. Caution is required for backcountry travel to avoid hitting shallowly buried rocks, stumps, or down trees.
Avalanches are definitely possible, and the main issue will be deposits of wind-drifted new snow that could produce slab avalanches, and with such shallow conditions you could sustain serious injuries if you're caught in even a small avalanche.
Snow showers are possible today, but not much snow is expected to fall and we'll call it a break in the weather. Looks like a snowy weekend in store, with a good chance for more significant snow in the mountains, especially on Saturday night when up to about a foot of accumulation is possible on upper elevation slopes.
Shallow snow conditions exist in the Bear River Range, with no more than about 1 foot of snow covering the rocks on upper elevation slopes.
Even if you're not planning to get onto the snow, it's never too early to start thinking about avalanches. A few things to consider doing:
- Attend USAW and learn more about avalanches and decision making. (scroll down to the bottom of this page for more info and links)
- Sign up for an avalanche class.
- Take the all-new online avalanche courses the UAC built for Know Before You Go or take other online courses listed on the KBYG website (Develop skills -> Online Learning).
- Get your avalanche rescue gear ready for winter. Put fresh batteries in your transceiver and update the firmware. Inspect your shovel and probe. Get your airbag backpack ready by possibly doing a test deployment and update the firmware if it is an electric version.
