Only 1 more week to support the UAC when you shop at Whole Foods. The Whole Foods Bag Donation ends March 31. When you bring your own bags to Whole Foods in Sugar House, Trolley Square, and Cottonwood Heights you can choose to have the UAC be the recipient of your 10 cent bag credit.
The UAC Marketplace is still open. Our online marketplace still has deals on skis, packs, airbag packs, beacons, snowshoes, soft goods and much more.
Yesterday morning 1-2 inches of additional snow fell. The sun appeared around noon and skies cleared overnight. Temperatures warmed a few degrees this morning with increased south winds and are in the mid to upper 20's F at most elevations. Winds are averaging 15-20 mph from the SSE at ridgetops and gusting 30-40 mph.
Storm totals (Thursday through Friday morning) are about 2.5 inches of water in the Cottonwoods and 1.5 inches of water along the PC Ridgeline. At low elevations, this precipitation was all rain. At upper elevations it was 10-12 inches of snow.
The snowpack yesterday was warm, weak and wet up to about 9500 feet. If you stepped out of your skis or board, you'd quickly sink to your waist. Clear skies and below freezing temperatures last night have likely only refrozen the snow surface. Photo below (Brackelsberg) shows runnels in the snowpack which are evidence of liquid water moving downslope in the snowpack.
For a quick recap of the last seven days, check out our Week in Review
Yesterday morning at least 7 wet slab avalanches were triggered by ski patrols in the Salt Lake area mountains. Many of these were at least 2 feet deep and occurred generally between 8500 feet and 9500 feet. These are no joke. The debris is like a slurry of wet concrete. These slides were mostly triggered with small hand charges. I looked a a few of them yesterday, and there's no doubt that a skier or rider could have easily triggered them as well.
Also, 2 natural deep slab avalanches involving dry snow were spotted yesterday in Day's Fork. One definitely occurred in a path that slid previously and created debris 10-15 feet deep. The other likely occurred in a repeater path as well but I'm unsure.
Photo below of leg breaking wet slab debris in Little Cottonwood Canyon.