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Forecast for the Skyline Area Mountains

Craig Gordon
Issued by Craig Gordon on
Saturday morning, December 1, 2012

Terrain to avoid- steep, upper elevation wind loaded terrain. While isolated and limited to a small portion of the terrain, the consequences could be season ending.

In general you'll find a LOW avalanche danger in a vast majority of the terrain along the Skyline this weekend.

With a stronger storm on tap for late Sunday, I expect the avalanche danger to rise accordingly for early next week.

Low
Moderate
Considerable
High
Extreme
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Special Announcements

The Manti-Skyline advisory program continues to function because of the very generous contributions you've made at our annual fundraisers along with the support from our non-profit Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center. Thanks to all of you for helping keep this vital resource up and running! We will be updating this weekend advisory by 7:0 AM each Saturday morning.

Weather and Snow

The Skyline got a little skunked on last night's storm system. Just an inch or so fell along the summit. Currently, skies are partly to mostly cloudy, temperatures are in the low to mid 30's, and westerly winds are blowing 20-25 mph along the high ridges. The Skyline remains thin and riding conditions are hit and miss, though soft settled powder can be found in upper elevation, wind sheltered, shady terrain.

Steve and Darce were out on the Skyline Summit yesterday and posted this great observation.

Snow stake at Miller Flat Trailhead pretty much sums up the tale of a shallow snowpack.

Yikes... down canyon at the Wasatch Academy ski hill it's looking rather bleak.

Recent Avalanches

No avalanche activity to report.

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Avalanche Problem #1
Persistent Weak Layer
Type
Location
Likelihood
Size
Description

Now that the winds have a little new snow to work with, I wouldn't be surprised if there's a fresh wind drift or two along the Skyline Summit that'll be sensitive to the additional weight of a rider. You're most likely to find fresh drifting in steep, upper elevation leeward terrain facing the north half of the compass. While not widespread, deep, or dangerous, today's wind slabs may be large enough to catch you off guard and take you for a quick, adrenaline inducing ride.

Additional Information

Skies will be clearing as a break in between systems starts to develop.West and southwest winds die down in all but the highest terrain where they will continue to gust into the 20's and 30's throughout the day. High temperatures reach into the upper 30's and low 40's before dipping near freezing overnight. Clouds, moisture, and winds ramp up again tomorrow ahead of a stronger, but fast moving system that will impact the area late Sunday afternoon through Monday morning. Winds in excess of 70 mph will be common along the ridgetops by tomorrow afternoon, but will decrease overnight. Not the big storm that the region desperately needs, but we should probably see another shot of high density snow in the 3"-6" range. High pressure quickly builds for early in the week with another brush-by expected for Wednesday.

General Announcements

Remember your information can save lives. If you see anything we should know about, please participate in the creation of our own community avalanche advisory by submitting snow and avalanche conditions. You can call me directly at 801-231-2170, email [email protected], or email by clicking HERE

This is a great time of year to schedule a free avalanche awareness presentation for your group or club. You can contact me at 801-231-2170 or email [email protected]

Donate to your favorite non-profit –The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center. The UAC depends on contributions from users like you to support our work.

The information in this advisory expires 24 hours after the date and time posted, but will be updated by 7:00 AM Saturday December 8th.

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