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 March 12, 2006

Good morning, this is Dave Kikkert with the Logan area backcountry avalanche and mountain weather advisory from the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center.  It's Sunday March 12th at 7:00 am.  This advisory is brought to you in part by the Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center in Logan with help from the Trailhead in downtown Logan.

Current Conditions:

Mountain temperatures remain winter-like this morning with 8,000' temperatures in the low teens.  Currently, winds are light from the west-northwest under 10 mph.  Winds were from the east-southeast again overnight with about a 3 hour period near 20 mph.  Cold temperatures have kept all but the sunniest of slopes from crusting, and excellent conditions can be found on sheltered northerly facing slopes.  Many slopes exposed to the unusual southeast winds have some degree of wind damage. 

Snow and Avalanche Conditions:

Sadly, I have to post details of a probable avalanche fatality in an out-of-bounds area near Snowbasin.  A 35 year old snowboarder was buried in an avalanche west of an area known as Taylor's Canyon.  The avalanche occurred on a northwest facing slope near 8,400' and was a hard slab about 200' wide, 2' deep and running about 1000 vertical feet.  A more complete report will be available Monday (Utah Avalanche Center).  In addition to this tragic incident there were several smaller, less consequential wind-slabs reported from the Central Wasatch.  Yesterday morning, near Logan Peak I observed tons of snow being blown off ridges and drifted onto steep north and northwesterly facing slopes.  Observers also reported wind channeling up and down canyons, cross-loading slopes and building stiff drifts near sub-ridges and other terrain features.  Most wind slabs will likely have settled out today, however some may remain sensitive, also east-southeast winds did spike up for a few hours overnight.  In short, continue to treat steep wind-drifted slopes with respect for a couple days.  Not all is doom and gloom and outside of wind-effected terrain the snowpack seems mostly stable and the avalanche danger is low.  If the sun gets out today or tomorrow the danger of wet-avalanches could rise.

Bottom Line:

The avalanche danger remains MODERATE on wind-drifted slopes steeper than about 35 degrees at upper and mid-elevations.  Out of wind effected terrain and at lower elevations the avalanche danger is generally LOW. 

AN AVALANCHE WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR THE MOUNTAINS OF SOUTHERN UTAH.  THIS DOES NOT INCLUDE THE WASATCH PLATEAU.
 

Mountain Weather:

A cold upper low is keeping cold and unstable weather over our area, however we seem to be just a bit too far north to pick up much snow.  Today, temperatures will remain in the low 20's at most locations with light west and northwesterly winds.  As the trough slides mostly to our south today we will have mostly cloudy skies and possibly enough convection to pick up an inch or two of light snow.  A stronger cold front that should effect out area is possible Tuesday afternoon.

General Information: 

If you're confused by some of our avalanche terms check out the cool new Avalanche Encyclopedia. 

For a list of recent avalanches in  the regional backcountry go to Avalanche List.  Snow nerds, check out the new Snow Profiles page.  Check out our Images Page for pictures of recent local avalanches.

Please send backcountry observations to [email protected] or leave a message at 755-3638, especially if you see or trigger an avalanche in the backcountry. We really want to hear from you, even if you think your observation is unimportant.    The information you provide may save lives...

This advisory will expire by tomorrow morning.  I will update it Monday 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.