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 statement

Friday December 7, 2007

Hello and good morning, this is Toby Weed of the Utah Avalanche Center with your Logan Area backcountry avalanche and mountain weather advisory.  It’s Friday December 7th and it’s about 7:30 in the morning.  This advisory is brought to you in part by the Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center in Logan with help from the local community.

             Current Conditions:

You’ll need an extra pair of goggles if you head into the mountains today.  As of 5:00 this morning, the Tony Grove Snotel at 8400’ picked up about 3 inches of new snow to bring the total up to 16 inches on the ground. But it’s snowing hard across the region and the much needed snowfall will continue throughout the day.   The fresh white stuff is falling on a mixed bag of surface conditions, and in many places it’s piling up on shallowly buried facets or weak, rotten granules resembling large grain sugar.  Yesterday it was still possible to drive a car up to Tony Grove Lake, and I’m sure there will be some traffic up there this weekend.  Remember, with a high concentration of different types of users on the road it’ll be necessary to keep your speed down especially when you pass pedestrians.

Avalanche Conditions:

Today the avalanche danger will be on the rise.  So far, with a fairly light southeasterly wind accompanying the snowfall, significant wind drifting of the new powder shouldn’t really be an issue.  But I’ve noted many slopes with a buried weak layer comprised of sugary facets. As the weight of today’s forecast dumpage stacks up on the weakness, I’ll start to be much more concerned by growing avalanche potential.

  Watch for obvious signs of instability like woomphing noises, hollow sounding drifts, and shooting cracks.

Bottom Line:

There’s a MODERATE danger today and you could trigger an avalanche on upper elevation slopes facing the northern half of the compass and steeper than about 35 degrees.  Accumulations of a foot or more or an increase in wind speeds may cause the danger to rise to CONSIDERABLE on some upper elevation slopes.

Mountain Weather:

Looks like winter is finally here.  Today it will dump in the mountains, with heavy snowfall probable throughout the day.  Snowfall, reinforced by a surge of cold air should continue through Sunday.  A brief break is likely before another shot hits us on Monday.  An active and wintry pattern is in store for next week.

General Information:

            The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center in Logan will present their 4th Annual Pray for Snow Fundraiser/Party tonight at the Bullen Center

             in Downtown Logan.  This year the event is by invitation only.  Please call 753-0372 or email [email protected] for your invatation.

Check out photos of avalanches in the Logan Area on our images page.

Go to the Avalanche Encyclopedia if you have any questions about terms I use in the advisory

Please e-mail backcountry observations to me at [email protected] or leave me a message at 755-3638. 

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.