Avalanche Advisory
Advisory: Abajo Area Mountains Issued by Eric Trenbeath for Tuesday - January 30, 2018 - 6:49am
bottom line

There is an isolated or MODERATE avalanche danger on steep, upper elevation northerly facing slopes where more than about a foot of snow can be found overlying weak, sugary snow on the ground. Elsewhere the avalanche danger is generally LOW.




special announcement

Episode 3 of the UAC podcast is live. We talk with UDOT Avalanche Program Supervisor Bill Nalli on how he and his teams keep the Greatest Snow on Earth from avalanching over the open roads and highways of the state. Check it out on ITunes, Stitcher, the UAC blog, or wherever you get your podcasts.

current conditions

On Friday, the Abajo Mountains picked up a couple inches of snow on the northern side of the range. Overall snow cover remains very thin with depths ranging from 12-20" on shady aspects, to almost non-existent on sun exposed slopes. Base depth at Buckboard Flat is 13".

Wind, temperature and humidity on Abajo Peak (11,000')

Snow totals at Buckboard Flat (8924')

Snow totals at Camp Jackson (8858')

You gotta want it!

Avalanche Problem 1
type aspect/elevation characteristics
LIKELIHOOD
LIKELY
UNLIKELY
SIZE
LARGE
SMALL
TREND
INCREASING DANGER
SAME
DECREASING DANGER
over the next 24 hours
description

The current snowpack structure is very weak and in my travels on Friday I did observe some collapsing of the snowpack. This means that there are areas where underlying weak, sugary, faceted snow is unable to support the additional weight of a skier or rider. With the overall thin coverage, these areas are far and few between, but you could encounter them on steep, upper elevation, northerly facing aspects that have more than about a foot of snow. This situation will become more problematic when, and if, we ever get a significant snow load.

Weak, sugary, faceted snow at the ground is providing an unstable base for future snow loads.

weather


general announcements

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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.