SAVE THE DATES!
Saturday, December 6 - 18th Annual Utah Snow and Avalanche Workshop (USAW). This session will be held in-person at the Wasatch Jr High School Auditorium. 3750 S 3100 E, Salt Lake City, UT 84109. Information and tickets are available here.
Avalanche Awareness Week!
The 7th Annual Avalanche Awareness is the first week of December! This week is jam-packed with events to get you ready for the season and a chance to connect with other backcountry users. We hope to see you out there!
The weekend brought clear skies, light winds, and a strong temperature inversion. No new precipitation has reached the Wasatch since mid-last week.
Cooler air drifts into northern Utah today as a weak, moisture-starved front brings spotty light mountain snow from early afternoon into evening. While snow totals are low, there is a chance for a trace amount, with winds gradually picking up from the northwest before snow chances drop off after midnight.
Snow conditions remain grim, but things are becoming more heads-up following the last pulse of storms. The highest elevation, cold northerly slopes continue to be the only places holding significant snow. This snow was previously spotty and disconnected, but observers are now finding it more connected and smooth, primarily on cold northerly slopes. We're seeing on average 4-10" of better-connected snow along ridgelines, a bit more in the deeper zones such as Cutler Ridge.
This is the time of year when noting coverage becomes especially important. Pay attention to where the dirt is because it might be the safest place to ride once storms really start rolling. Slopes with old snow will be guilty until proven innocent.
Observer JB traveled up Cutler Ridge on the 23rd and found snow around 7,000' consisted mostly of a few inches of melted and refrozen crud, while above 8,000' there's 10–15" of snow with more concerning structure. Last week's new snow is decomposing and weakening under a melt-freeze crust with large 15–20 mm surface hoar present on most slopes, especially sheltered northerlies. Southerly aspects became damp by mid-morning, and although it's still far from skiable, the Ben Lomond area has the most snow in the Ogden region heading into the next weather system.
See the snowpack structure JB found below, and the coverage along Cutler Ridge.
No new avalanches from the Ogden area, but a few are beginning to trickle in from the Central Wasatch.
Find all observations and recent activity HERE.
