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.

                        The Utah Avalanche Center Home page is: http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/

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Logan area Avalanche advisory

January 6, 2007

Hello and good morning, this is Toby Weed of the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center with your backcountry avalanche and mountain weather advisory.  It's Saturday January 6th, and its 7:10 am.  This advisory is brought to you in part by the Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center in Logan with help from Import Auto.

Current Conditions:

 You'll be able to find lots of nice snow in the backcountry today, and you should track it up early before the next Pacific storm kicks up the wind this afternoon.  It may be getting late already, since a west-southwesterly wind increased overnight and is already averaging 30 mph with gusts in the 45 mph range at the Campbell Scientific weather station on Logan Peak.  If nothing else, the wind-chill-factor will probably drive you down to more sheltered terrain.  It's zero degrees at 9500' this morning.   Skin-freezing winds and light snowfall will slowly increase during the day ahead of a cocktail-time frontal passage. 

Avalanche Conditions:

Increasing southwesterly winds today will find lots of transportable snow from Thursday's storm, and drifting will cause an increasing danger of wind slab avalanches as the day progresses.  In places, the winds could drop down into lower elevations affecting the fresh snow in normally sheltered terrain.  On some steep slopes, stiff drifts will overload shallowly buried weak layers.  Thursday's storm laid down a preserving blanket on top of pre-existing weak surface snow, which has turned sugary or faceted because of temperature gradient metamorphism during last week's high pressure system.  Wind slabs will rapidly build up today on steep lee slopes.  Watch for and avoid fresh drifts near ridge-tops or cross-loaded around terrain features like gully walls, rock outcroppings, or sub-ridges.

Bottom Line:

This morning there's a MODERATE avalanche danger in the backcountry.  Wind slab avalanches are possible on steep slopes with recent deposits of wind drifted snow.  With increasingly strong southwesterly winds and some accumulating snow, the danger will likely rise to CONSIDERABLE this afternoon on upper elevation northwest through southeast facing slopes steeper than around 35 degrees.  Triggered wind slab avalanches will be probable, and avalanche training and experience will be essential for safe travel in exposed upper elevation terrain.  

Mountain Weather:

  The National Weather Service has issued a Snow and Blowing Snow Advisory for the region for today and tonight. The Northern Mountains might pick up a few inches today in the prefrontal flow, but the precipitation from the quick-hitting storm will rapidly cease after the front passes this evening.   Look for a potentially productive weather pattern to set up over the region next week, with a series of juicy storms possible.

General Information:

The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center-Logan will present the 3rd annual fundraiser on Friday, January 19th at the Bullen Center in downtown Logan.

For cool pictures of some of 2006's avalanche activity, including last week's avalanches, visit our Images Page.

These advisories are updated on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and weekend mornings by about 7:00.   I will issue an updated advisory on Sunday morning.  Logan Area advisories are accessible through the new statewide toll-free avalanche information line at, 1-888-999-4019.

Please send backcountry observations to [email protected] or leave us a message at 755-3638, especially if you see or trigger an avalanche in the backcountry.  I'm a little starved for information from you these days.  Your observations are necessary, and the information you provide may save lives. 

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.