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Forecast for the Ogden Area Mountains

Issued by Bruce Tremper for
Friday, January 11, 2013

It's a tricky situation today because most of the new snow fell at lower elevations rather than upper elevations. Expect loose snow avalanches within the new snow especially in areas with over a foot of snow such as at lower elevations and in mountains between Ogden and Salt Lake. Avoid terrain traps such as gullies and be cautious even walking in the foothills. Also, there may be some lingering wind slabs as well as new wind slabs along the upper elevation ridges.

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Weather and Snow

It's just one of those storms that drives weather forecasters crazy. Only 6 inches of snow fell overnight in the upper Cottonwood Canyons while 1 to as much as 2 feet of snow fell on the benches, especially from about Farmington to northern Salt Lake City. About a foot fell in the mid and lower Cottonwood Canyons. Powder Mountain ended up with a foot overnight but everywhere else in the range is closer to six inches. The moisture layer is shallow and the front stalled out between Ogden and Salt Lake City.

The wind blew from the south fairly hard before the front arrived late yesterday afternoon and the winds have been light from the west since then. Temperatures have plunged to just below zero.

Recent Avalanches

There was no avalanche activity reported from yesterday.

Note: A snowmobile avalanche incident reported from Wednesday in the Logan area mountains turned out to be more of a stuck snowmobile incident in a low elevation ravine but it did involve a very small wet sluff.

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Avalanche Problem #1
New Snow
Type
Location
Likelihood
Size
Description

Today's avalanche issues with the storm snow will depend completely on new snow depth. In places with 1-2 feet of new snow you can expect lots of loose snow avalanches in steep terrain and some could be dangerous. These will be soft and fairly manageable unless you are in a terrain trap such as a gully. Counter intuitively, it will be worse at lower elevations than upper elevations both because the new snow is deeper at lower elevations and also the pre-existing snow is weaker. So be careful even while walking in the foothills. See my video primer on the snowpack conditions.

In places where only 6-8 inches of new snow fell, the new snow should not affect avalanche conditions very much.

Avalanche Problem #2
Persistent Weak Layer
Type
Location
Likelihood
Size
Description

The strong winds from the south and southwest before the front arrived created some hard wind slabs along some of the upper elevation ridges. I found these to be sensitive yesterday and a snowmobiler triggered what appeared to be a large wind slab on Lewis Peak on Wednesday. The new snow will conceal these wind-loaded slopes. They will feel solid and hard underneath until they break out into a large, hard-slab.

Also, even thought the wind died down after the front arrived, you may find some localized wind slabs within the new snow, especially along the upper elevation ridges. As always, avoid any steep slope with recent wind drifts.

Additional Information

Cold, unstable air will continue to create a few lake effect squalls and most of them look like they will impact the mountains between Ogden and northern Salt Lake City. We could see 6 more inches accumulated in those areas with more like 3 inches elsewhere. Ridge top winds will blow from the west and northwest 10-15 mph with very cold temperatures near zero. Light snow showers should continue today and tonight and taper off on Saturday.

The extended forecast calls for continue cold with smog building up in the valleys again.

General Announcements

Go to http://www.backcountry.com/utah-avalanche-center to get tickets from our partners at Park City, Beaver Mountain, Canyons, Sundance, and Wolf Mountain. All proceeds benefit the Utah Avalanche Center.

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), Canyons Resort Dispatch (435-615-3322)

Ogden – Snowbasin Patrol Dispatch (801-620-1017)

Powder Mountain Ski Patrol Dispatch (801-745-3773 ex 123)

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/ .

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 bysubmitting 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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For a print version of this advisory click HERE.

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

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