Storm Slab: Heavy snow fall has created instabilities within the storm snow. This issue will be on all aspects and elevations above about 7,000' in elevation. I would expect storm slab avalanches failing within the new snow to be touchy this morning, especially in steep terrain. These will be 6-12" deep and up to 100' wide and large enough to bury a person. The good news, is this problem should begin to settle out quickly this morning and into the early afternoon.

Wind Slab: Strong winds over the past few days have drifted snow onto many aspects and elevations. The most suspect terrain will be north through south-east facing slopes at upper elevations. To add insult to injury - it will be hard to identify this problem, because they are now covered by yesterday's 6-10" of new snow. Always avoid rounded pillowy snow or fresh drifts of wind blown snow.

Loose Dry: Any slope steeper than 30° will produce long running sluffs within the top few inches of low density snow. Be sure to manage your terrain by heading from safe point to safe point and don't ride above your partner.

Cornices: Have grown large and sensitive in the past few days. Yesterday during my field day I was able to remotely trigger a cornice just by walking close to it. Give these a wide berth as they tend to break further back than expected. If you're walking ridges today make sure no one is below you before approaching cornices.

With upwards of 2.3" inches of water weight falling through-out the range you can expect these deeper weak layers to be coming back to life. They will be most pronounced at upper elevations facing the north half of the compass. They are easy to avoid - watch your slope angles, making sure nothing is steep above or adjacent to you. Choose conservative terrain and give your self outs if something does happen. We haven't heard of an persistent slab avalanches laterly in the Ogden area mountains. This is partly because these layers are possibly a bit stronger and less widespread than other zones further south. It may also be partly due to less traffic in the Ogden area backcountry.

Quick thought on water weight: Picture a football field covered in 2.4" of liquid water. If you do the math you'll see it comes out to roughly 700,000 lbs that's 350 tons or simple put the weight of seven Boeing 737 air planes. Now the scary thought is to think about tilting all that weight up to 38° degrees. How would you feel walking underneath or riding when that much weight comes crashing down?