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Forecast for the Provo Area Mountains

Issued by Bruce Tremper for
Saturday, November 24, 2012

The majority of terrain has a LOW avalanche danger, which never means no danger. The most likely places you could trigger an avalanche today would be in the more extreme terrain and on upper elevation slopes that face the north quadrant of the compass. You may also find some wet sluffs on lower elevation, sun exposed slopes.

Low
Moderate
Considerable
High
Extreme
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Weather and Snow

Snow surface conditions remain quite variable. Crampons may be the vehicle of choice on low elevation trails below about 8,500', which was below the rain-snow line of the last storm. You'll find variable wet and dry snow at mid elevations mixed with lots of pine needles, some variable wind affected snow in upper elevation, wind-exposed terrain. And yes, you can actually still find some decent snow for turning on slopes above about 9,000' on wind sheltered slopes that face north. Overnight temperatures are in the mid 20's with daytime highs in the mid 40's.

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Avalanche Problem #1
Wind Drifted Snow
Type
Location
Likelihood
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Description

We avalanche forecasters are feeling a bit neglected and unappreciated these past few days with no reported avalanches from the backcountry or the resorts. If you're reading this, you can consider yourself one of the true hard-cores. On the bright side, we finally have time for much-needed work on our new website. Have you noticed several new tutorials on the menu? Hmmm. Didn't think so. You can find tutorials on How to Read the Avalanche Advisory and a summary of Avalanche Problems and one on Avalanche Danger Ratings. You can find them under Education > Tutorials. We will keep adding content through the season.

But wait, back to avalanche conditions, I posted a snow profile and video from my fieldwork yesterday for your viewing pleasure, which you can find in Detailed Info > All the Good Stuff. We have a couple of seemingly dormant avalanche problems 1) the old depth hoar near the ground continues to propagate fractures, albeit very inconsistently and with heavy blows to the column, and 2) some wind slabs are still cracking but are very stubborn and not particularly reactive. Today you may also find some wet sluffs on lower elevation, sun exposed slopes that are getting baked by the sun.

Additional Information

As a ridge of high pressure moves over us, we will have increasingly warm weather, light winds and clear skies. Daytime highs should be in the mid 40's and overnight lows in the mid 20's. On Sunday, we should have a few clouds and even a chance of a few snowflakes as a system passes north of us.

The extended forecast calls for continued nice weather but it looks like a better chance of snow by about next weekend. Stay tuned.

General Announcements

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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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 also call us at 801-524-5304 or 800-662-4140, or email by clicking HERE

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This advisory is produced by the U.S. Forest Service, which is solely responsible for its content. It describes only general avalanche conditions and local variations always exist. Specific terrain and route finding decisions should always be based on skills learned in a field-based avalanche class.

Evelyn will update this forecast tomorrow.

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