We found nice spring conditions yesterday, with large piles of wet avalanche debris everywhere in steep terrain under cliffs and cornices, challenging travel in places. The saturated snow at lower elevations was soft and sticky in the afternoon and I would post-hole deeply in slushy snow just trying to access the fishing hole. The snow has burnt off of many sunny low elevation slopes, but there is way more snow than normal for this time of year elsewhere.
In the spring it's a good idea to get in the habit of getting out early, so you can finish up early and avoid being in avalanche terrain late in the day when the snow is softened by warmth and more prone to avalanching. This is the case today, and the snow on sunny slopes and at lower elevations is likely to become too soft earlier than it did yesterday.
The 8400' Tony Grove Snotel reports a balmy 42° F
and there is 124" of total snow. It's 34° F and the wind is blowing 32 mph (with gusts close to 50 mph) from the south-southwest this morning at the 9700' CSI Logan Peak weather station.
Here is the NWS point forecast (36 hrs) for Upper Elevations in the Central Bear River Range:
Today: Mostly sunny, with a high near 46. North wind 6 to 11 mph becoming southwest 12 to 17 mph in the afternoon.
Tonight: A chance of rain and snow showers before 9pm, then snow showers likely. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 27. West southwest wind 9 to 16 mph becoming northwest after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.
Tuesday: Snow showers. The snow could be heavy at times. Some thunder is also possible. High near 33. Wind chill values as low as 10. Breezy, with a west southwest wind 13 to 18 mph increasing to 21 to 26 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New snow accumulation of 7 to 11 inches possible.
Cooler temperatures and clouds will prevail through the remainder of the work week.
It is a pleasure to report no new avalanches in the past few days.... For a list of last week's avalanches in the Logan Zone go
HERE.
Find a list of all recent observations & avalanches from across Utah go
HERE.
