Hello
and good morning, this is Toby Weed of the
Current Conditions: Winds and snowfall diminished overnight, but a
few inches of somewhat heavy new snow will do wonders to help smooth out the
well-worn and heavily tracked old snow in the backcountry. Yesterday we found solid and supportable
refrozen snow under a couple inches of fresh on sunny slopes and softer
re-crystallized snow in shady areas.
Currently northwest winds are averaging less than 5 mph at the Campbell
Scientific weather station on
Avalanche Conditions: We’ve received numerous reports from yesterday of small, easily
and intentionally triggered soft slab avalanches and new snow sluffs in the
Triggered soft wind slab avalanches and sizable sluffs will again
be likely today on steep slopes. These
new snow avalanches should mostly be quite manageable and should present much
less danger to someone on a fast sled than to a fallen skier or a pedestrian
hiking up a gully. Avalanches are most probable in exposed upper
elevation terrain and on slopes facing the eastern half of the compass.
Beware
the Ides of March…..Don’t get overconfident or fooled by the somewhat shallow
but heavy new snow; you may find small avalanches entraining lots of mass. Many avalanche slide paths in the area are
well filled-in and smooth, so even relatively small avalanches might run fast
and far.
Bottom Line: There’s a MODERATE danger in
the backcountry and triggered new snow avalanches are possible on slopes
steeper than about 35 degrees. In exposed
terrain there may be some slopes with significant deposits of drifted snow and
a CONSIDERABLE danger,
most likely on upper elevation slopes facing the eastern half of the
compass. That means on these slopes you
are likely to trigger avalanches and a few naturals are not out of the
question.
Mountain Weather: The National Weather Service will
continue a Snow Advisory for the mountains through
The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center in Logan is presenting an
Avalanche Fundamentals, Level 1 Class (Certification), starting March 14,
with field sessions on the 15th, and 22nd. Please register in advance with the Friends
via e-mail or for more information contact [email protected].
Check out
the images page for photos of some of
this season’s avalanches.
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.
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.