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Forecast for the Skyline Area Mountains

Craig Gordon
Issued by Craig Gordon on
Thursday morning, December 25, 2014

At upper elevations at and above treeline, the avalanche danger is CONSIDERABLE. Human triggered avalanches are probable on steep, wind drifted slopes facing the north half of the compass, especially terrain with an easterly component to its aspect. Any slide triggered today has the potential to break deep and wide, resulting in a dangerous and possibly unsurvivable avalanche.

A MODERATE avalanche danger exists on recently wind loaded slopes at mid elevations and human triggered avalanches are possible

A LOW avalanche danger exists on low and mid elevation slopes facing the south half of the compass.

Low
Moderate
Considerable
High
Extreme
Learn how to read the forecast here
Special Announcements

Bruce, Otis Redding, and I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas... turn it up!

Emerging from the UAC stokemobile.... Craig and Trent gear up for a little cold smoke, two stroke, pow stoke! Huge thanks to all of our great partners including Sam T Evans and Look Trailers for generously donating a loaner two place sled trailer for the 2014-15 season.... y'all rock!

Huge thanks to Sam T Evans and Look Trailers for generously donating a loaner two place sled trailer for the 2014-15 season.... y'all rock!

We just released an exciting, new avy safety video designed specifically for snowmobilers - Knowledge is Powder. https://vimeo.com/113677686

NEW THIS YEAR: You can now receive advisories by email for each region in the state. Go here for details.

Weather and Snow

A nice shot of snow moved into the region overnight delivering 6"-8" of medium density snow across the range. West and southwest winds blew in the 20's and 30's overnight, but backed off early this morning, switched to the west-northwest, and are currently blowing 15-25 mph along the high ridges. Temperatures are in the low to mid 20's. Excellent riding and turning conditions are found on the Skyline, particularly on mid elevation, wind sheltered slopes.

Darce and Steve stomped around Electric Lake yesterday. Here's their take on the current setup.

Recent Avalanches

The region got clobbered last weekend with dense heavy snow and hurricane force winds. Winds have filled in a lot of the crowns and they're not quite as dramatic as just a few days ago, but from the Summit of the Skyline to Miller's Flat, avalanches can be seen everywhere.

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

Ridgetop winds ramped up overnight and started moving quite a bit of snow around. Today, fresh wind drifts are gonna be the most obvious avalanche dragon out there on the Skyline. Fat and rounded in their appearance, these mini whales formed on upper elevation, leeward slopes facing the north half of the compass. While mostly manageable in size and depth, today's wind slabs will be sensitive to the additional weight of a rider. With more snow and wind forecast throughout the day, this mornings predictable avalanche conditions may become a little more rowdy, breaking deeper and wider as the day progresses.

Remember- whoomphing sounds or shooting cracks in front of your skis, board, or sled are huge clues to unstable snow. And don't forget the biggest clue... recent avalanches! Especially if they're occurring on the same kind of slope you wanna ride on.

Avalanche Problem #2
New Snow
Type
Location
Likelihood
Size
Description

More deceptive, not so easy to detect, and even less manageable are avalanches that break to weak layers of snow near the ground. It's what we call persistent slabs. Here's a great video illustrating why they're so dangerous. Any avalanche triggered today has the potential to break into weak layers near the ground, producing a large and dangerous slide. Avoid steep wind drifted terrain and you avoid the problem.

Additional Information

Snow, heavy at times continues through the day. An additional 4"-8" is a good bet. High temperatures don't vary much from where we're at this morning and overnight lows dip into the low teens. Winds near the ridgetops decrease into the teens and low 20's, switch to the north, and then northeast this evening and overnight. A few lingering showers continue into Friday before tapering off in the evening. Another cold storm is on track for late Saturday night through Monday night

General Announcements

We're still interested in snow and avalanche information. 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 call me directly at 801-231-2170, email [email protected], or email by clicking HERE

Donate to your favorite non-profit –The Utah Avalanche Center. The UAC depends on contributions from users like you to support our work.

Benefit the Utah Avalanche Center when you buy or sell on ebay - set the Utah Avalanche Center as a favorite non-profit in your ebay account here and click on ebay gives when you buy or sell. You can choose to have your seller fees donated to the UAC, which doesn't cost you a penny.

Utah Avalanche Center mobile app - Get your advisory on your iPhone along with great navigation and rescue tools.

The information in this advisory is from the US Forest Service which is solely responsible for its content. This advisory describes general avalanche conditions and local variations always occur.

I will update this advisory by 7:00 AM Friday Dec. 26, 2014.

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