UDOT PLANNED AVALANCHE CLOSURES!!

Forecast for the Skyline Area Mountains

Brett Kobernik
Issued by Brett Kobernik for
Saturday, January 12, 2019
While the snowpack has stabilized a lot over the last few days HUMAN TRIGGERED AVALANCHES ARE STILL POSSIBLE especially on slopes approaching 40 degrees in steepness and more likely on the north end of the Skyline.
Overall, the avalanche danger is MODERATE across the majority of the Skyline. If you avoid the steepest slopes, you will stay out of danger from avalanches.
Low
Moderate
Considerable
High
Extreme
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Weather and Snow
Riding conditions are "hit or miss" but you will still find some excellent carving snow out there.
We have a couple of nice sunny days in store and then it looks like a fairly significant series of storms will move in for the middle and especially late part of next week.
Recent Avalanches
There have been no significant avalanches reported since Tuesday. There were a number of snowmobile triggered avalanches that happened on Tuesday. HERE IS A LIST OF ALL AVALANCHE ACTIVITY
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Avalanche Problem #1
Persistent Weak Layer
Type
Location
Likelihood
Size
Description
All 3 of the recent snowmobile triggered avalanches that I looked at broke into sugary snow that formed on the surface during the mid December dry spell. At this point, the snowpack has stabilized quite a bit and test results are stubborn to fail at the locations of the avalanches which were on NE or E facing slopes at about 9800'. I'm feeling pretty good about this issue but I'm still not just punching any slope.
I was at a lower location on Friday near Miller Flat Reservoir where the snowpack is shallow and weak with sugary snow that feels like there is "no base". I experienced a couple of fairly large collapses or "whoomps" of the snowpack. This is unnerving. I was on lower angle slopes but had they been steeper, they would've avalanched.
So, it's a little tricky out there. For the most part things are stable but there is, no doubt, some weak snow around and it's a little difficult to identify exactly which slopes might have weak enough snow to avalanche.
Additional Information
This forecast is from the U.S. Forest Service, which is solely responsible for its content. This forecast describes general avalanche conditions and local variations always occur.