The
Utah Avalanche Center Home page is: http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/
(click on) Utah Avalanche Center in Logan for our home
page
Logan
Hello
and good morning, this is Toby Weed of the
Current Conditions: North
winds may be fairly strong in the mountains today, and if so that will likely cause
a fair amount of drifting at upper elevations with several inches of fluffy new
snow on shady slopes still unaffected by solar heating. I
found fun and smooth, not-so-dust-on-crust conditions this weekend and there
are many slopes across the region where you can find safe and enjoyable conditions. I was quite impressed in the past couple days
by the powerful heating produced by even short windows of higher angle sunshine
between clouds.
Its 10 degrees at
9400’ and it looks like the wind sensor at the CSI weather station is still
rimed-up, so local northeast windspeeds are
unknown. They’re from the northeast and
light to moderate on
Avalanche Conditions:
It was
an active day in the Central Wasatch Range backcountry on Friday with several
sizable triggered and natural avalanches reported, including a few with people
taking unexpected and potentially dangerous rides. It was somewhat active again in the canyons
above SLC yesterday, with notoriously persistent small faceted or sugary grains
to blame (Wasatch Advisory). Locally, with less new snow, we have
much less of a problem with persistent slabs….However, I observed some fairly
sizable natural loose wet avalanches yesterday on sunny slopes in Wood Camp
involving the few inches of fresh snow.
And by mid-afternoon we were able to initiate small wet avalanches on
steep west facing slopes in the area.
Triggered soft and stiffer wind slab avalanches are possible on
steep upper elevation slopes with significant deposits of drifted snow. The danger of persistent slabs will be greatest
on drifted slopes in exposed upper
elevation terrain and on slopes with existing weak layers facing the northern
third of the compass.
Don’t
be betrayed by the somewhat shallow new snow; you may find even smallish wet
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 far or fast.
Bottom Line:
There’s
a MODERATE danger in the backcountry and
triggered wind slab or wet avalanches are possible on slopes steeper than about
35 degrees. You might trigger persistent
or fresh wind slab avalanches in exposed upper elevation terrain on steep
slopes with significant deposits of drifted snow. There’s a LOW danger
and avalanches are unlikely at lower elevations and in sheltered terrain and on
slopes with less than around a foot of new snow. Solar warming could cause a MODERATE danger of wet avalanches on steep slopes with saturated
surface snow.
Mountain Weather: The National Weather Service has continued
a Snow Advisory for the northern mountains as a Pacific trough moves on
through the state. A few inches of snow
are likely to accumulate. A dirty ridge
of high pressure will build into the region for the coming week, but we may be
brushed by a few systems passing to our north and some snow is possible.
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.
