Hello and good
morning, It’s Martin Luther King Day and this is Toby Weed of the
Current Conditions:
A Winter
Storm Warning remains in effect for the Bear River and Wellsville Mountains
through 6:00 this evening. Expect heavy
snowfall this morning to taper off in the afternoon. So far, the winds with this storm appear to
be fairly light, now blowing from the east
at around 5 mph at the Campbel Scientific weather station on Logan Peak. Looks like the Wellsville and Southern Bear
River Ranges are getting the most snow, with almost 11 inches reported at
Snowbasin Middle Bowl in the Ogden Area and only a couple so far up at Tony
Grove Lake and Beaver Mountian.
Avalanche
Conditions:
Over the weekend, a skier triggered a hard wind slab avalanche just below
7000’ in elevation on a NE facing slope near
Last week strong north winds built stiff drifts in exposed terrain. In some areas hard wind slabs formed on small
grained sugary snow called near surface facets.
I’ve been watching a suspect weak layer under fairly widespread brownish
or dirty snow that fell last Tuesday 1/15.
I’ve noted remarkably consistent moderate failures in compression tests.
The new snow is piling up on a varied and complex old snow surface made
up of wind sun and rime crusts, super light fluff, frost crystals or surface
hoar, and sugary near surface facets. Avalanches will be most probable on
slopes that pick up more than a foot of new snow. New wind slabs may develop today at upper
elevations as easterly winds drift the fresh
light powder into avalanche starting zones.
Bottom Line:
There’s a MODERATE danger on
steep slopes at all elevations in the backcountry. Triggered avalanches are possible, especially
in exposed terrain at upper elevations. The
danger is already or will rise to CONSIDERABLE on slopes steeper than about 35
degrees that receive a foot or more of new or wind deposited snow. On these slopes you are likely to trigger
avalanches and some naturals are possible. Continued heavy snowfall and/or intensifying
winds will cause the danger to rise or become more widespread.
Mountain
Weather:
The cold storm is forecast to move slowly southward
over the region, with periods of heavy snowfall diminishing in the mountains
this afternoon. The cut off low will set
up off the
General
Information:
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
I'm very interested
to know what you're seeing out there. Please e-mail observations to
me at [email protected] or leave me a message at 755-3638, especially if you
see or trigger an avalanche in the backcountry. We keep all observations
confidential.
The second annual avalanche awareness ride is
Saturday Feb. 2nd and we’d love to see all of you there! Proceeds help to support snowmobile specific
avalanche awareness projects. Details can be found at http://www.avarides.com/
- January 24th, 26th and
27th, Avalanche Fundamentals, Level 1 Class
(Certification), presented by Friends of the
This advisory will expire in 24 hours from the posting
time.
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.