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Forecast for the Salt Lake Area Mountains

Drew Hardesty
Issued by Drew Hardesty on
Tuesday morning, March 7, 2017

A MODERATE danger exists for wind slabs on many aspects and elevations. Human triggered avalanches are possible. Keep in mind that the drifts may be up to 24" deep and not limited to the usual locations. The good news is that the best and safest riding conditions today can be found in wind-sheltered terrain.

*IF the sun comes out and warms the snow more than expected, plan on the potential for some wet avalanche activity on the steepest sun-lit slopes.

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

The Wasatch Powderkeg will be held this Friday and Saturday at Brighton as a benefit for the Utah Avalanche Center, featuring a Ski Mountaineering Sprint race on Friday afternoon and a longer race Saturday with Race, recreation, and youth courses and divisions. There will also be Companion Rescue, Terrain Strategies, Splitboarding, Steep Skiing and Riding, and Mountaineering Techniques for Skiers and Snowboarders skills clinics Saturday taught by local pros. There will be a drawing for great gear including boots and winner's choice of skis or a splitboard mid-day Saturday. Details here.

Powder magazine has a companion piece to our Shame and the Social Contract essay from January. Editor Matt Hansen describes the uncomfortable position of reporting an avalanche in Getting Beyond the Emotional Game of Reporting an Avalanche. The take-home: Your reports of avalanche information matter. On this topic, a nod of appreciation to Aaron Rice in describing his incident in the Y-Not couloir a couple days ago...confirming that if you skin up over 2.5 million feet in a year, you're granted nine lives.

Weather and Snow

Skies are mostly cloudy as high mountain temps struggle, albeit slowly, to rise above the single digits. Trailheads and mid-elevation temperatures are in the mid-teens. The westerly winds kicked it up a notch overnight and are blowing 25-30mph with gusts to 50. Even the low elevation anemometers are gusting into the 30s. Snow surface conditions are a mix of wind and isolated areas of sun-damage along with excellent riding conditions in the more protected terrain. Snow depths up high are just shy of 150" and the low elevation exits have recovered nicely from last month's thaw.

Recent Avalanches

The trend was favorable. Early Monday morning snow and wind produced a few shallow natural wind slabs in heavily loaded areas while ski area control work produced both sensitive and stubborn wind pockets 1-2' in depth. New cornice-fall also produced shallow sluffing and bite-size shallow wind slab along the more exposed ridgelines. By afternoon, however, stability had greatly improved and the snow became much more stubborn and resistant to ski cuts and other provocation.

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Avalanche Problem #1
Wind Drifted Snow
Type
Location
Likelihood
Size
Description

The westerlies will have produced an additional round of drifts on many aspects and elevations overnight. Don't be fooled into thinking that the drifts will only be along the higher ridgelines: many otherwise protected anemometers are spinning 15-20mph with gusts near 40mph. With west wind, many of our east-west running canyons are prone to cross-loading. Look for drifts to the lee of sub-ridges and around rocky outcroppings and other terrain features. Remember that shooting cracks and audible collapsing are red flags.

In my travels from the Alta Guard to Cardiff Peak and into Cardiff Fork yesterday, I used many test slopes (lower Toledo gully, Indicator Bowl, etc) to gauge the extent and sensitivity of the fresh wind slabs. Test slopes are key pieces of terrain in that - if targeted appropriately - are representative (steep, wind-loaded) of the the avalanche conditions while providing leniency of consequence.


Avalanche Problem #2
Cornice
Type
Location
Likelihood
Size
Description

The Year of the Cornice. These behemoths are larger and more widespread than I can remember. A natural cornice fall along the south end of the Park City ridgeline last week snapped trees in the runout below. Utah has suffered more than a couple tragic events of people triggering and falling over with cornices. Another white whale below along the Cardiff Peak traverse to the Eyebrow.

Avalanche Problem #3
Normal Caution
Type
Location
Likelihood
Size
Description

An old avalanche colleague and friend Rip Griffith likes to say, The snow is a capricious acquaintance you'll never really know while the terrain is your most trusted friend. Sticking to low angle terrain during times of uncertainty stacks the odds in your favor. Don't think twice, it's alright.

Additional Information

In general, we'll be under a westerly flow with a warming trend over the next several days. The westerly winds south of I-80 should become a more reasonable 15-20mph by early afternoon. Areas north of I-80 should continue to see moderate to strong winds along and north of the Utah/Idaho border over the next couple of days with more energetic waves passing to the north. Today we'll see partly to mostly cloudy skies and perhaps a trace of snow in the Ogden and Logan area mountains. Ridgetop temps will warm from today's mid-teens to the low 20s tonight...and will trend toward the low 30s by later Thursday.

General Announcements

Remember your information can save lives. If you see anything we should know about, please help us out by submitting snow and avalanche conditions. You can also call us at 801-524-5304, email by clicking HERE, or include #utavy in your tweet or Instagram.

To get help in an emergency (to request a rescue) in the Wasatch, call 911. Be prepared to give your GPS coordinates or the run name. Dispatchers have a copy of the Wasatch Backcountry Ski map.

Backcountry Emergencies. It outlines your step-by-step method in the event of a winter backcountry incident.

If you trigger an avalanche in the backcountry, but no one is hurt and you do not need assistance, please notify the nearest ski area dispatch to avoid a needless response by rescue teams. Thanks.

EMAIL ADVISORY If you would like to get the daily advisory by email you will need to subscribe here.

DAWN PATROL Hotline updated daily by 5-530am - 888-999-4019 option 8.

TWITTER Updates for your mobile phone - DETAILS

UDOT canyon closures: LINK TO UDOT, or on Twitter, follow @UDOTavy, @CanyonAlerts or @AltaCentral

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

Powderbird Helicopter Skiing - Blog/itinerary for the day

Lost or Found something in the backcountry? - http://nolofo.com/

Ski Utah mobile snow updates

To those skinning uphill at resorts: it is critical to know the resort policy on uphill travel. You can see the uphill travel policy for each resort here.

Benefit the Utah Avalanche Center when you shop from Backcountry.com or REI: Click this link for Backcountry.com or this link to REI, shop, and they will donate a percent of your purchase price to the UAC. Both offer free shipping (with some conditions) so this costs you nothing!

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.

This information does not apply to developed ski areas or highways where avalanche control is normally done. This advisory is from the U.S.D.A. Forest Service, which is solely responsible for its content. This advisory describes general avalanche conditions and local variations always occur.
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