Most terrain has a LOW avalanche danger. Watch for an increase in shallow wind slab development in the high lee terrain over the next couple of days.
Weather and SnowSkies dawn clear this morning with overnight "lows" in the upper 20s to mid-30s. Winds are starting to ramp up ahead of a clipper -storm that will pass by to the north tomorrow. Anemometers that best track southerly flow winds are already showing hourly averages of 30 with gusts to 35. It's like that old tourist-trap t-shirt that reads, "The Tetons got snow and all I got was this lousy t-shirt with wind and way too warm temperatures." It's about worn out after last year.
Riding conditions remain good in the mid to upper elevation shady terrain. Southerly and westerly aspects - and all elevations below about 8500' - are sun and rain damaged. Jim Steenburgh, U of U professor of atmospheric sciences and backcountry skier (and not necessarily in that order) writes a great weather blog and addresses the topic of global warming and the what the future might look like with a posting, The Blessings of Altitude. It's worth a look.
Recent AvalanchesNo reports of cracking, significant collapsing, or avalanches from the backcountry yesterday. Avalanche control work in Big and Little Cottonwood and the Park City mountains offered no results. This is key information as this is in terrain that is not yet skier-compacted; in other words - "a backcountry snowpack".
Here's what we know regarding the old October weak snow interface 12-18" down
The now-cast for wind drifts is a LOW danger...the forecast is for increasing wind slab development along the high northwest to northeast facing slopes over the next couple of days.
It's mostly Low danger. Riding conditions are pretty good. Continue to follow safe travel protocol, practice with your avalanche transceiver, strategic probing and shovelling techniques.
Bluebird. Winds will be 25mph from the southwest. Temps will be in the low to mid 30s. The southwesterly winds will reach 35-40mph by Wednesday night ahead of a cold front which should drop temps back into the low 20s by Thursday. Expect a flake or two from this system. The ridge rebuilds briefly with perhaps a weaker disturbance by later in the weekend. Potential pattern change by the end of the month. We need it.
If you trigger an avalanche in the backcountry - especially if you are adjacent to a ski area – please call the following teams to alert them to the slide and whether anyone is missing or not. Rescue teams can be exposed to significant hazard when responding to avalanches, and do not want to do so when unneeded. Thanks.
Salt Lake and Park City – Alta Central (801-742-2033)
Ogden – Snowbasin Patrol Dispatch (801-620-1017)
Provo – Sundance Patrol Dispatch (801-223-4150)
Dawn Patrol Forecast Hotline, updated by 05:30: 888-999-4019 option 8.
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Daily observations are frequently posted by 10 pm each evening.
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UDOT canyon closures UDOT at (801) 975-4838
Wasatch Powderbird Guides does daily updates about where they'll be operating on this blog http://powderbird.blogspot.com/ .
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We will update this forecast tomorrow. Thanks for calling.
