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Forecast for the Provo Area Mountains

Drew Hardesty
Issued by Drew Hardesty for
Sunday, February 24, 2013

Most terrain has a MODERATE danger..with liklihood of triggering a slide in steep north through east through south facing slopes. I suspect that stability will improve as the day wears on. Continue your safe travel rituals such as one-at-a-time and getting out of the way at the bottom.

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Weather and Snow

We needed that. It was a good old fashioned cold front that flew by the region. There is quite a bit of variability within snow amount. Little Cottonwood picked up another 6 inches overnight pushing storm totals to 16 inches. Big Cottonwood and Park City received 4-7 inches overnight with storm totals up 8-10 inches. Ogden area mountains had another couple inches overnight, 16 in the last 24 hours, 25 inches since Friday. The Provo mountains typically fare poorly with a northwest flow and storm totals look to be 3-5 inches.

Winds were moderate to strong with frontal passage and remained gusty through the afternoon. The northwesterlies remain in the moderate to strong catrgory, blowing 25-35 with gusts into the 40s but these winds are confined to the higher elevations.

Temperatures plummeted and are in the single digits or below zero. Middle elevations and trailheads remain in the low teens.

Riding conditions are stellar in northerly wind sheltered slopes. Southerlies will be good, but you will definitely feel the crust below the storm snow.

This forecast written primarily by visiting avalanche professional and educator from Alaska Eeva Latosuo. Thanks Eeva.

Recent Avalanches

The obscured skies prevented viewing of avalanche activity in the alpine, but plenty of small soft slabs on the new storm snow were reported throughout the region. Snowpack seemed to respond to rapid loading quite well, and test slopes would crack out to show localized instability on our field day. A couple parties reported remotely triggering slides coincident with the periods heavy snowfall and wind. Up to 16 inch slabs stayed were most reactive during the time of intense loading.

UDOT and ski areas did not report anything too out of extraordinary for control results.

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Avalanche Problem #1
Persistent Weak Layer
Type
Location
Likelihood
Size
Description

Your best chance of getting into trouble today is finding a wind slab at high alpine on north to east to south facing aspects. While I feel that sensitivity was at its peak yesterday, these wind slabs could still act up today particularly in open exposed terrain. Once again, test slopes in representative terrain will be good indicators for this instability, and shooting cracks will be your red flag. While expected yesterday, remote triggering is unlikely today. It is always wise to watch out for cornices that had a minor growth spurt yesterday.

Avalanche Problem #2
Wet Snow
Type
Location
Likelihood
Size
Description

There is a lot of new low (5-6% water) density snow to play in. These sluffs will be manageable and reactive to ski and slope cuts and cornice drops in the steepest terrain (>40 degrees). Only the overnight smoke will be sensitive, yet it's possible they may gouge down into the older storm snow while speeding down slope.

Avalanche Problem #3
Loose Dry Snow
Type
Location
Likelihood
Size
Description

Persistent slabs can reawaken after significant loading events. Jury is still out on how this storm affected January facets, but likely triggering could be happen in the areas of shallower snow cover with significant trigger, such as explosive, snow mobile, or going big over jumps or cliffs.

Additional Information

We'll have overcast skies with temps in the single digits to low teens. The north to northeast winds will be 20-25mph, decreasing as the day wears on. Partly cloudy for tonight and early tomorrow ahead of a clipper system slated for Monday night into Tuesday. 6" possible. High pressure builds for the weekend.

General Announcements

Go to http://www.backcountry.com/utah-avalanche-center to get tickets from our partners at 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.

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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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