Hello and good morning, this is Toby Weed of the
Current Conditions:
Although we didn’t pick up
anywhere near as much snow as points to our south, it’s good to finally see
more than an inch or two pile up on our dismal snowpack. The Tony Grove Snotel at 8400’ so far picked
up about 10 inches of new snow from the storm, and there’s 22 inches on the
total snow stake this morning. Just
south of the Logan forecast zone, the Ben Lomond Peak Snotel picked up 2.5
inches of water and probably a bit over 20 inches of snow in the last 48 hours. South winds on
Powder conditions at upper
elevations steadily improved yesterday, with the new snow filling in and
smoothing out old tracks on the popular grassy slopes south of
Avalanche
Conditions:
No avalanches reported in the
Logan Area, but yesterday I triggered numerous shooting cracks and a few audible
collapses. The shallow preexisting snow
is cursed by brittle crusts sandwiching layers of loose facets.
This weekend the sacred fresh
white stuff is falling on a mixed bag of old snow surface conditions, and in
many places it’s piling up on shallowly buried facets
or weak, rotten granules resembling large sugar grains. This problem exists on
upper elevation shady slopes that had snowcover before Thanksgiving. The new
snow is creating a slab which may avalanche if underlying weak snow fails. It’ll
take a certain load to cause such a failure, and as the new snow piles up your
additional weight on a slope might just be enough.
Watch for obvious signs of instability like woomphing
noises, hollow sounding drifts, and shooting cracks.
Bottom Line:
There’s a CONSIDERABLE danger today and you probably could trigger
an avalanche on some upper elevation north facing slopes steeper than about 35
degrees. The danger is MODERATE in most other
areas, with triggered avalanches possible. An increase in wind speeds may cause the
danger to rise or become more widespread.
Mountain Weather:
A heavy snow warning continues for
the region, but we’ll see a slow down or even a bit of a break in the snowfall
for a few hours Today. 5-9 more inches are forecast through tonight. Things should taper down to showery
conditions tomorrow. An active and
wintry pattern is in store for next week.
General Information:
The 4th Annual Pray
for Snow Fundraiser/Party last night was a big success! Thanks for showing your support.
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.