UDOT PLANNED AVALANCHE CLOSURES!!

Forecast for the Salt Lake Area Mountains

Drew Hardesty
Issued by Drew Hardesty for
Thursday, February 2, 2023
Most slopes have a LOW avalanche danger today.
A tricky MODERATE danger, however, exists on some steep west to south to southeast facing slopes where you can trigger a soft slab avalanche 1-2' deep.

Use Normal Caution for shallow soft slabs of wind drifted snow in the high alpine terrain. You should also anticipate wet loose sluffing with direct sun and daytime warming on the steep solar aspects today.
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Moderate
Considerable
High
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Weather and Snow
Skies are clear.
Winds are light from the west-northwest. Anemometers along the highest ridgelines are spinning 25mph with gusts to 35.
Mountain temperatures are inverted with temps in the teens up high, the single digits down low.
Despite a breakable sun crust on the solar aspects, riding conditions are excellent on the northerly slopes.
The Alta Guard station has been keeping snow records since 1944/1945. January totals are 139" and 11.14"(snow-water-equivalent) for the month with a running total for Nov>Jan of 336"/30.47"

Today, we'll see sunny skies, light west-northwest winds, and temperatures slowly rising to the the upper 20s up high, the mid-30s down low.
Outlook: A weak storm system does a drive by Friday. We'll see moderate to strong southwest winds but no precipitation for the trouble. Another stronger system arrives Sunday/Sunday night for another few inches of snow. The longer range outlook is neither blockbuster storm after blockbuster storm, ⛈ but it's not a high pressure ridge parked overhead, either.

Amazing coverage and amazing riding conditions in the Cottonwoods and the Park City ridgeline.
Recent Avalanches
Other than a wet loose avalanche cascading over the Hellgate cliffbands in upper LCC, we did not hear of any avalanches yesterday.

See the full list of avalanche activity HERE and you can filter slides by region and date.
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Avalanche Problem #1
Persistent Weak Layer
Type
Location
Likelihood
Size
Description
photo of skier catch and carry off the Flagstaff Ridge into Toledo on Monday
A thin layer of weak faceted snow above an ice crust that formed about a week ago has been the culprit in a number of natural and human triggered avalanches over the past several days. These soft slab avalanches have resulted in at least a couple close calls with one skier caught and swept into trees in the Toledo area of LCC. These slides are roughly 1-2' deep and average 200' wide. Collapsing and cracking sometimes accompany this unstable layering.
WHAT IS UNUSUAL is that this PWL problem is on the sunny slopes. We tend to see tricky PWL (persistent weak layers) on northerly slopes. Now we are dealing with them, although momentarily, and in spotty fashion, on west to south to southeast facing slopes.
Mark Staples describes how this facet-crust layer forms in this video.
Here's the good news - This layer mostly exists on slopes that should have an ice crust on the surface this morning, and those are ones you will likely avoid anyway. Northerly facing slopes seem to lack this layer and will have better snow.
Nikki went to check out the avalanche in Mule Hollow of BCC yesterday. You can see the thin layer of soft faceted grains above a crust near her snow crystal card.
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.