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Forecast for the Ogden Area Mountains

Issued by Bruce Tremper for
Friday, January 18, 2013

Another great day to get into the warm, sunny mountains above the cold smog layer in town. Avalanche conditions are mostly stable with the exception of:

1. Wet, loose-snow avalanches on steep, sun exposed slopes in the heat of the day
2. Pockets of lingering persistent slab problems at mid elevation, north and east facing slopes mainly from Mill Creek to Ogden.
3. Pockets of lingering, hard, wind slabs in the upper elevation, wind exposed terrain.

Low
Moderate
Considerable
High
Extreme
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Weather and Snow

It was yet another fabulous, sunny, warm day yesterday up above the very cold, lung-clogging inversion in the valley. I skied around most of the day with a baseball cap, no gloves and just my long underwear top. Don't forget the sunscreen. Today will be another day with temperatures in the 40's in the mountains.

Snow surface conditions include lots of wind-damaged snow at upper elevations, wet, soggy snow on all the sun exposed aspects and still lots of fast-riding, near-surface faceted snow and surface hoar on all the wind and sun sheltered slopes. Popular slopes have lots of tracks in the Cottonwood Canyons.

Recent Avalanches

On Thursday we saw fairly widespread areas of wet, loose-snow sluffs on most of the southerly facing slopes and sometimes on east and west facing slopes as well. They occurred on elevations above 7,000' (the top of the cold smog layer) up to around 10,000'. There was also one small, natural slab noticed in the Provo area mountains on an east facing slope on Lama Peak, which was probably heat related. No other details available.

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Avalanche Problem #1
Wet Snow
Type
Location
Likelihood
Size
Description

We should see continued wet, loose, sluffs on steep, sun exposed slopes in the heat of the day mainly on the southerly-facing slopes but occasionally on east and west facing slopes, especially at elevations from around 7,000' to 10,000'. As usual, stay off of, and out from underneath, steep sun-exposed slopes when they are getting wet and soggy in the heat of the day. These avalanches are generally small and manageable unless you are in high-consequence terrain such as a gully, above a cliff or trees.

Avalanche Problem #2
New Snow
Type
Location
Likelihood
Size
Description

Although the persistent slab activity has died down from last weekend, people are still reporting some collapsing and propagating fractures on Extended Column Tests in places where the most snow fell from last week's storm--mostly outside the Cottonwood Canyons in mid elevation areas of Mill Creek, the Session Mountains and the mountains near Bountiful and Farmington. These are hard to trigger but they will be large and dangerous avalanches that could fracture up to 2' deep and quite wide. This is a low probability - high consequence situation. In other words, I don't expect to hear about any today but I'm still quite cautious of them.

Avalanche Problem #3
Deep Slab
Type
Location
Likelihood
Size
Description

Old, mostly dormant, wind slabs still exist in the upper elevation, wind exposed terrain. They are mostly hard and not reactive but I could still get them to crack yesterday and you should still be suspicious of them. See the photo in my observation from yesterday. You can recognize them by their smooth, rounded appearance.

Additional Information

It will be another very warm, sunny day up above the cold, valley smog. Temperatures should top out in the mid 40's with overnight lows in the mid 20's. Winds will remain light.

For the extended forecast, we see more of the same with a hint of a weak system mid week and a stronger system forecast for perhaps a week away.

General Announcements

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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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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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