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Forecast for the Ogden Area Mountains

Evelyn Lees
Issued by Evelyn Lees for
Monday, January 14, 2013

Avalanche danger remains CONSIDERABLE on mid elevation slopes facing west through north through easterly, approaching 35 degrees or more in steepness. The dangerous combination is where the weak faceted snow is buried by about a foot or more of new snow or any place the new snow is even slightly wind affected and stiffer.

Avoid any new drifts of wind-blown snow that could be created by an increase in wind speeds along the high ridges this afternoon.

LOW danger – there is plenty of untracked powder left on slopes less steep than about 35 degrees, that are not under or connected to steeper slopes.

The Dangerously Cold Temperatures will narrow your margin of safety today – it will be very hard to deal with any sort of avalanche incident or equipment failure.

Low
Moderate
Considerable
High
Extreme
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Special Announcements

We have 2 more donated items being sold via auction: A day of cat skiing in the Uintas with Park City Powdercats (January or March) and an Arva EVO3+ beacon, new in the box. Treat yourself and support the UAC and their sponsors.

Weather and Snow

One more day of dangerously cold temperatures – it is well below zero this morning, in the negative -5 to -15 degree F range. The northwesterly winds are fortunately very light, less than 10 mph in most places. The few places where the winds are 10 to 15 mph, the wind chill makes it feel like 20 to 30 degrees below zero. Some riming occurred yesterday.

Recent Avalanches

No reports of recent avalanches form the Ogden area mountains.

Yesterday, we had a report of an unintentional cornice drop triggering a slide in West Monitor, Park City ridgeline, about a 100' wide that ran the length of bowl. A natural avalanche was reported from Cardiac, timing unknown, but probably a few days old.

Brett visited the West Porter avalanche site, updated info here.

Drew visited the Alexander avalanche site, updated info here.

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Avalanche Problem #1
New Snow
Type
Location
Likelihood
Size
Description

Tricky stability evaluation conditions continue.

The weak layer is easy to identify – it’s the sugary, loose facets beneath the newer snow. It is weakest on west through north through easterly facing slopes, in shallow snowpack areas and the low and mid elevations of the Ogden area mountains.

It’s the new snow “slab” that is variable and not consistent across a slope. Generally, slides are being triggered on slopes with over a foot of new snow or anywhere that the snow has been slightly stiffened by the wind, into a denser layer

This persistent weak layer has all the classic characteristics – a few tracks on the slope doesn’t guarantee stability, it will stabilize slowly, and you can trigger a slide remotely, so be aware of what is above and to the side of you.

The elevation bands on the rose are “fuzzy” – slides could occur below 8,000’ and above 9,500’, too.

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

An afternoon increase in the northerly winds could start to drift snow along the higher ridgelines (and if not this afternoon, then overnight and tomorrow). Drifts will be most widespread on the southerly facing slopes, and you’ll be able to crack them out on steep slopes, triggering an avalanche.

Additional Information

Skies will be will be partly cloudy today and temperatures very cold again, only warming to 0 to 5 above at 8,000’ and all of -4 F along the high ridge lines. Winds should remain light, generally less than 15 mph, though speeds across the highest ridge lines will increase to 20 to 30 mph.

Increasingly strong northerly winds tonight, with speeds reaching 25 to 35 mph along high ridges, gusting to 60 mph by morning. Continued strong northerly winds tomorrow and rapidly warming temperatures, from -4 F tonight to 14 F by tomorrow am. There is potential for a riming event Tuesday morning, on a strong northerly flow. Then it’s deja vu – strong high pressure with no chance of snow well out into the future.

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.

Subscribe to the daily avalanche advisory e-mail click HERE.

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

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.

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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