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Forecast for the Ogden Area Mountains

Evelyn Lees
Issued by Evelyn Lees for
Friday, March 22, 2013

The avalanche danger is MODERATE on all steep, wind drifted slopes. Shallow, but long running slides, can be triggered, and will be most widespread on easterly facing slopes at both mid and upper elevations. Cornices are sensitive and breaking back further than expected. Any period of sun will make damp snow sluffs easy to trigger.

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Special Announcements

Ever stop to wonder what life in Utah would be like without non-profit organizations? No Park City trails, community gardens, shelters for homeless people or pets, programs for kids in need, environmental advocacy groups, or avalanche centers? Sounds grim. All these groups exist because people like you value them enough to pay for them. If you value these services, please show your support. Please go to http://loveutgiveut.razoo.com/giving_events/utah13/home on Friday to learn more about how you benefit from these services and how you can help them.

Unfortunately, we were not able to generate the critical mass of registered participants necessary to make the 12 Hours of Canyons event viable . . . this year. But we’re coming back with a vengeance next winter, so stay fit and look forward to spending the night with us in 2014. Thank you for your support of the Utah Avalanche Center. You help us keep everyone on top of the Greatest Snow on Earth.

Weather and Snow

A break between disturbances has given us a quiet night – the westerly winds have temporarily calmed down, and are less than 10 mph at most locations, with the high peaks averaging 20 mph, gusting to 30. Temperatures in the Ogden area mountains are in the teens to low 20s this morning. It’s been a welcome return to winter and soft snow, but there is a blurring of snow numbers. However, if you take into account the last 4 days, approximate storm totals in the upper elevation of the Cottonwoods – 10 to 17”, it’s 8 to 10” on the Park City side, 5 to 7” in the Ogden mountains, with the Provo mountains unfortunately only a trace. Yesterday afternoon, the clouds broke long enough that west and south facing slopes and the lower elevations will be crusted.

Recent Avalanches

Yesterday morning started out with a small natural avalanche cycle of new snow soft slabs on wind drifted slopes in the Park City and Salt Lake mountains. For the rest of the day, soft wind drifts were easily triggered on wind drifted slopes. A few were 100-150' wide, the rest seemed to average 50' wide, and 8 to 14" deep. They were the most recent snow only, and the characteristic of note – most were running full track. Check out details on the avalanche list and other recent observations.

Pioneer Ridge slide

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Once again, today’s focus will be on wind drifted slopes. While yesterday’s wind drifts should be settling out and stabilizing, the expected increase in winds combined with more new snow will whip up a new batch of sensitive drifts. The drifts will be most widespread on high elevation easterly and southeasterly facing slopes, however, the winds are expect to get into mid elevations. So also watch for drifts off ridgelines (yesterday’s Toledo Chute slide was reported as being triggered 200’ off the ridge line), drifts around sub ridges and mid slope break overs and the sides of gullies. Also:

  • Cornices are growing rapidly, and can be triggered from a distance or break back further than expected. As you travel ridge lines, be very careful not to release a cornice on any people below you.
  • It’s classic spring conditions – the strong sun doesn’t care how cold temperatures are - if the sun does pop out where you are, the new snow will almost instantly become damp and sluff easily on steep slopes.
Additional Information

A cold northwest flow with embedded disturbances will remain over the area through Sunday. Clouds and snow will fill in this morning, with the heaviest snow fall this afternoon. 2 to 5” of low density snow is expected, with possibly more in areas favored by west to northwest flow.

As the disturbance approaches, the west to northwesterly winds will increase into the 10 to 20 mph range, with gusts to 35 mph common. The highest peaks will have averages to 35 mph, with gusts in the 40s. Daytime temperatures at 8000’ will warm into the mid 20s, and ridge line temperatures will drop a few degrees, to near 10. Cold temperatures and periods of light snow will continue on a northwest flow through Sunday.

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.

Subscribe to the daily avalanche advisory e-mail click HERE.

UDOT canyon closures UDOT at (801) 975-4838Wasatch Powderbird Guides does daily updates about where they'll be operating on this bloghttp://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, email by clicking HERE, or include #utavy in your tweet.

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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