Forecast for the Salt Lake Area Mountains
Issued by Drew Hardesty on
Sunday morning, November 13, 2022
Sunday morning, November 13, 2022
It's a great time to be in the mountains.
The snow is mostly stable and the avalanche danger is LOW on all aspects and elevations.
Loose dry sluffing is possible in steep northerly terrain. It may also be possible to trigger a shallow pocket of wind drifted snow in isolated areas or extreme terrain.
Low
Moderate
Considerable
High
Extreme
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Special Announcements
Many ski areas are now closed to uphill travel in order to prepare for winter operations. Resort uphill travel policies can be found HERE.
Weather and Snow
Skies are clear. Winds are light from the southwest. Mountain temperatures are in the teens. A weak storm will pass to the south of us today and we'll see partly cloudy skies and light veering winds to the north. Temps will be in the low to mid-20s. Dry, cool and stable conditions are on tap for the week.
The GOOD NEWS is that coverage is excellent for this time of year and riding conditions on the northerly aspects are fair to good. Solar aspects will be crusted over this morning and yesterday's winds left some damage in the high elevations.
Storm totals since Monday in the Cottonwoods are 2-3' of snow containing 2.9-4.6" of water.
Snowpack depths are
3-4' in the Park City mountains;
4-5' in the Cottonwoods;
the highest snow totals for early November since 2004.
The Week in Review will appear regularly by early to mid-December, but given the impressive storm cycle over this past week, we have published a special early November edition.
Recent Avalanches
No avalanche activity was reported from the backcountry yesterday. That said, one experienced backcountry party noted wind loading in the higher elevations, experienced shooting cracks in the new wind blown snow and wisely backed out and chose different terrain. A party in the Provo mountains also turned around after finding conditions that they did not like. This is good decision making and I applaud that. Cause (wind drifting) and effect (shooting cracks) photos below (Stauss and Ratliff)
Avalanche Problem #1
Normal Caution
Type
Location
Likelihood
Size
Description
The snow is mostly stable and normal caution is advised. Loose dry sluffing is possible in steep northerly terrain. It may also be possible to trigger a shallow pocket of wind drifted snow in isolated areas or extreme terrain.
General Announcements
This information does not apply to developed ski areas or highways where avalanche control is normally done. This forecast is from the U.S.D.A. Forest Service, which is solely responsible for its content. This forecast describes general avalanche conditions and local variations always occur.