Wasatch-Cache National Forest  In partnership with:  Utah State Parks and Recreation, Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center-Logan, and Utah State University College of Natural Resources.

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Logan area Avalanche advisory

Sunday, January 8th, 2006

Good morning, this is Dave Kikkert with your Logan area backcountry avalanche and mountain weather advisory from the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center.  It's Sunday January 8th at 7:00 am.  This advisory is brought to you with help from the Trailhead in downtown Logan.

Current Conditions:

Most mountain locations picked up what looks to be about 8-10 inches overnight with about 1’’ of water.   Temperatures are significantly cooler than yesterday, its currently around 20° at 8,000’ and still dropping.   Winds on Logan Peak averaged around 15-20 mph from the northwest overnight and are to continue in the same range today. There is a snow and blowing snow advisory in effect until 5pm today and we could see a few more windy snow flurries.  Turning and riding will probably be good just about everywhere out of the wind.

Avalanche Conditions:

Today’s primary avalanche concern will be new wind-drifts formed yesterday and overnight.  Periodic heavy snowfall has been accompanied by sustained northwest winds in the 20 mph range.  I would expect to find sensitive wind-drifts today on lee slopes in exposed terrain, especially near ridgelines.  Many of these wind-drifts may be on top of slick crusts and could run faster and further than expected.  I would also be mindful of a buried weak layer in the upper snowpack that could become overloaded in the most exposed and wind-loaded terrain.  This layer seems to be about 1.5 to 2 feet down, often associated with a layer of graupel. 

Also I can’t get by without mentioning the isolated possibility of an un-survivable monster avalanche on deeply buried weak layers.  While it is unlikely that the weight of a person could trigger such a slide, its possible a new snow avalanche could.  Something like this would be most possible on slopes with a shallow snowpack prior to Christmas.

Bottom Line:

Today there's generally a MODERATE avalanche danger.  On some wind-loaded slopes steeper than about 35 degrees the danger is CONSIDERABLE.  Watch out for freshly and previously formed wind-deposits on steep slopes, especially those facing east through south.  At lower elevations and in wind-sheltered terrain conditions should be much safer.

Mountain Weather:

It will be breezy and snowy today with a few more inches possible.  Looking into the future we should begin the new week with warm high pressure before a possible storm mid-week.

General Information: 

 For a list of our upcoming classes and awareness talks, go to our education page . For a list of recent avalanches in  the regional backcountry go to Avalanche List.

Snow nerds, check out the new Snow Profiles page.

Please send backcountry observations to [email protected], especially if you see or trigger an avalanche in the backcountry.

This advisory will expire tomorrow morning.  Toby Weed will update it Tuesday evening.

The information in this advisory is from the U.S. Forest Service, which is solely responsible for its content.  This advisory describes general avalanche conditions and local variations always occur. 

National Weather Service - Salt Lake City - Snow.