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Forecast for the Provo Area Mountains

Evelyn Lees
Issued by Evelyn Lees for
Thursday, February 21, 2013

A variety of hard old and soft new drifts of wind-blown snow that could be triggered by people on steep slopes make the avalanche danger MODERATE. The old hard drifts will be found on slopes facing the north ½ of the compass, and the new snow drifts more widespread on easterly facing slopes. These slides are large enough to take you for a ride – with bad consequences if you end up in trees or rocks.

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Special Announcements

Tonight come hear about The Story before Flaming Gorge Dam at the Wildflower Lounge at Snowbird. Roy is the Multimedia Archivist of Special Collections at the University of Utah's Marriott Library, and perhaps the foremost historians of western rivers in the world today. He's been leading river history trips on the Green, Colorado, Yampa and San Juan Rivers for 26 years, and running them for even longer. He's written several pieces and books on river history. Roy will reveal the buried history of the Green River, and the explorers of this historic water from Powell to Ashley. Part of the Utah Adventure Journal Speaker Series

Weather and Snow

The Cottonwood Canyons have been able to tease the most snow out of this non-descript storm – totals of about 2 to 6” of low density fluff since it started snowing yesterday. The rest of the Wasatch mountains have struggled to make the “trace to 2 inch” category. The westerly winds are quite light this morning – almost every station is averaging less than 10 mph, with gusts below 15.

Recent Avalanches

The only avalanche activity reported yesterday was a skier triggered wind slab in the Ogden area mountains - 70’ wide by a foot deep, on an east northeast facing slope at 9000’ and reports of poor bonding and sluffing of the new snow in the Cottonwoods.

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Avalanche Problem #1
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Overnight, there were a few hours of northwesterly wind speeds along the high ridgelines that were just strong enough to blow and drift some of the new snow. Shallow, sensitive soft slabs can be triggered along the high ridges that received the most snow – mainly of the Salt Lake and parts of the Park City mountains. These drifts will be most widespread on the easterly facing slopes.

It bit trickier will be avoiding the old, hard wind drifts formed by the southerly winds earlier this week, now hidden beneath the dusting of new snow. These hard drifts are mostly on northwest through easterly facing slopes, at both upper and mid elevations. While generally shallow, they still could break out 50 to 100’ wide, large enough to sweep you off your feet and take you for a ride.

Out of the wind affected terrain, the avalanche danger is mostly LOW, but be prepared for sluffing of the new snow, where it is poorly bonded to the variety of old crusts or the loose faceted surface snow on the shady, sheltered slopes.

Additional Information

Weak disturbances crossing northern Utah will continue to allow periods of light snow through Friday. An additional inch to 3 inches is possible today, with another trace to 2” tonight and again on Friday. 10,000’ temperatures will remain cool – in the 5 to 10 degree range through Friday.

Then it could get more interesting – strong, southwesterly winds Friday night into Saturday ahead of the front will warm 10,000’ temperatures into the upper teens. A burst of heavy snow could accompany frontal passage Saturday morning. Additional snowfall possible Saturday afternoon into Sunday as the pool of cold air arrives and/or lake effect bands set up.

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 (801-745-3772 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 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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