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Forecast for the Provo Area Mountains

Brett Kobernik
Issued by Brett Kobernik for
Monday, January 21, 2013

Most terrain has a LOW avalanche danger. You can still find areas where you could find trouble such as very steep upper elevation terrain where wind drifts may release. Steep gullies and terrain traps in the mid and lower elevations contain some fairly weak snow which could also pose a threat. Finally, warming temperatures will heat southerly facing slopes and potentially make them unstable in the afternoon.

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Weather and Snow

We have a pretty classic period of high pressure in progress right now with valley inversions, nice mild weather in the mountains and pretty stable snow for the most part. It feels like a normal January to me. Overnight temperatures were in the low 20s and northerly winds remained fairly light.

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Avalanche Problem #1
Wind Drifted Snow
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You can always find trouble out there if you look hard enough but overall we have pretty benign avalanche conditions right now. The snow surface is slowly faceting and becoming loose on the more shady northerly facing slopes but I wouldn't say it's alarming right now. It hasn't progressed to the point where the sugary snow is producing larger loose snow avalanches.

Unfortunately, the thinner snowpack areas where the overall snowdepth is only about 2 feet deep is slowly loosing the battle of the prolonged period of high pressure where a significant enough temperature gradient is deteriorating the entire pack. In other words, there are thin areas that are becoming weak from the surface to the ground. These "booby traps" will need to be considered as we bury them with upcoming storms but the storms are still a ways out.

Neither the current weakening of the snow surface nor the weakening of the thinner snowpack areas is posing an immediate concern unless you can find a spot where there is some sort of wind slab overlying this weaker snow. These areas are fairly far and few between but don't let your guard down. Continue to pay close attention to your surroundings as you travel from low to high elevations and as you switch aspects. Things change drastically with elevation and aspect changes.

Temperatures will be warming over the next couple of days and you should be very aware that the southerly facing slopes will become wet. I don't think that this is going to produce a whole lot of avalanche activity but, again, you need to keep paying attention and be mindful that the southerly facing slopes could become more dangerous during the afternoon sun.

Additional Information

We'll have slightly warmer temperatures today than yesterday and then slightly warmer again on Tuesday as the high pressure continues. Ridgetop temperatures will get into the 30s and northerly winds will continue to remain fairly light. We are seeing a "brush by" storm on Thursday that is now looking like it could produce a few snow flakes. We are also watching a system that's shaping up for late in the weekend into next week where we could see snow in a moist southwesterly flow.

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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