Episode 2 of the UAC podcast has been released. Drew Hardesty talks Avalanche Weather with Professor Powder himself, atmospheric sciences professor and author of Secrets of the Greatest Snow on Earth, Jim Steenburgh. Check it out on ITunes, Stitcher, the UAC blog, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Spend some time improving your rescue skills or learning about avalanches in these upcoming Salt Lake City area classes:
We have discount lift tickets for Alta, Snowbird, Brighton, Solitude, Deer Valley, Snowbasin,and Beaver Mountain. Details and order information here. All proceeds from these go towards paying for avalanche forecasting and education!
The UAC Marketplace is online. The holiday auction is closed, but our online marketplace still has deals on skis, packs, airbag packs, beacons, snowshoes, soft goods and much more.
Skies are mostly clear but we'll have some high streamers moving overhead throughout the day. Westerly winds are 10mph, gusting to 15. Mountain temperatures are in the upper 20s to low 30s with temps in the teens at the trailheads. Snow surface conditions are a mix of wind and sun crusts with soft settled powder on the sheltered slopes.
Our last reported backcountry avalanches were December 29th in upper Dry Fork in the Alta backcountry and in a closed area of Honeycomb canyon of BCC. For a full list of avalanches, click here.
Longtime observer Mark White demonstrated how weak the surface snow has become by initiating some dry loose "facet sluffs" in No Name Bowl yesterday.
[A quick "pocket guide" description of faceting by Gallatin NF avalanche forecaster (and former Snowbird ski patroller) Eric Knoff can be found here. The technical paper (worth a read) can be found here. Forecasters Brett Kobernik, Greg Gagne, Dave Kikkert, Wendy Wagner and others have all spent a great deal of time watching the facets grow. Learn more about their methods here.]