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Forecast for the Salt Lake Area Mountains

Brett Kobernik
Issued by Brett Kobernik for
Thursday, February 7, 2013

A MODERATE avalanche danger remains on the mid and upper elevation northerly and east facing slopes that are approaching 40 degrees in steepness. Human triggered avalanches are possible. Increasing southerly winds may drift snow into some sensitive drifts later today which you should pay attention to and avoid along the upper ridges.

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Special Announcements

TONIGHT:
As part of the Utah Adventure Journal Speaker Series; Stan Boor will be speaking at the Wildflower Lounge at Snowbird at 6:00pm. Stan will be talking about his opportunity to guide remote rivers around the globe. Admission is Free; a $5 donation is suggested to benefit the Utah Avalanche Center.

A Free 'Know Before You Go' presentation will be held at the Black Diamond store in Holladay at 7:30pm. Attendees will receive 15% off snow safety equipment.

Park City- Check out the 'Know Before You Go' presentation at the Jeremy Golf Club at 6:00pm. Cost is $10; $5 for light appetizers and $5 will go to the Utah Avalanche Center.

FRIDAY NIGHT:
Check out the Free 'Know Before You Go' presentation at Kirkhams Outdoor Products. The presentation will begin at 7:00pm and attendees will receive a 20% coupon for all avalanche related equipment good for 1 week from the date of the clinic.

Weather and Snow

Temperatures cooled into the teens overnight and west or southwest winds are generally light. The snow surface is a mixed bag of soft settled snow, wind crusts and sun crusts depending on aspect, elevation and slope angle.

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Avalanche Problem #1
Wind Drifted Snow
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Today you can travel around most terrain without too much worry of avalanches. As always, you need to pay attention when you're out in the backcountry. Here are some things to keep in mind.

  • Persistent Slabs: If you're getting into radical terrain with slope angles pushing 40 degrees on the more northerly and east aspects there's still a chance you could produce an avalanche that breaks into older weak snow.
  • Wind Slabs: As the wind picks up it may be able to drift enough snow to create some fresh sensitive drifts. These alone won't pose too much threat to people with a healthy amount of avalanche experience. The biggest threat would be if they drift and enhance the persistent slab problem mentioned above.
  • Wet Activity: This probably won't be much of a concern but pay attention to where you are if you're noticing really damp snow.

My focus is shifting to where I'm going to ride after the next anticipated snow storm where I'm currently anticipating 6 to 12 inches of snow into this weekend. My thoughts are as follows. Biggest concern is the new snow overloading a slope that contains weak faceted snow from January. So, when I head out I'll avoid areas that have a thinner and weaker snowpack. For example, my favorite steep avalanche paths in Porter Fork, Alexander Basin, Wilson Fork, and Soldier Fork probably won't be my first choice. If I decide I need to travel in areas with weak preexisting snow, I'll keep the slope angles low. I'll shoot for southerly facing slopes first as this storm is unlikely to produce a large enough load to break into faceted snow there. That said, you always need to pay attention to any storm snow instabilities within the new snow. Once I start moving onto steeper northerly facing, terrain I'll go to slopes that I've been paying attention to this winter and KNOW they don't hold weak enough snow to collapse under the new snow load. If you're unsure of how to do this you can always keep the slope angles low for a couple of days after the storm and see how things progress.

Additional Information

The day should start out pretty nice with some cloud cover moving in later this afternoon along with gradually increasing southwesterly winds. Ridgetop temperatures will get into the 20s and 30s in the 8000 foot range. A good sized storm system will start moving into our area on Friday and should produce a nice period of snow Friday night into Saturday starting out with southerly winds. Weather looks to remain unsettled as this low pressure system gradually moves east possibly producing periods of snow into Monday.

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.

Twitter Updates for your mobile phone - DETAILS

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 by submitting 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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