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:
If you’re still trying to decide whether or not to head into
the backcountry today, let me help.
Although we’re well into spring by the calendar, today is likely to be the
last day of a prolonged and powdery winter. Today you’ll
be able to find nice cold and dry snow, especially on north facing slopes at
upper elevations, but it’ll warm up drastically over the weekend which will send
us face-first into the spring melt down… The mountains picked up a couple
inches of new snow overnight, with the Tony Grove Snotel reporting 2/10ths of
an inch of water. The station picked up
a bit more than a half inch of water in the last 72 hours, and with 99 inches
of total snow on the ground it’s reporting 108% of average water content for
the date. Yesterday’s somewhat strong northwest
winds caused fairly extensive drifting in exposed terrain at high elevations,
but they diminished overnight. The CSI
weather station on Logan Peak shows a north wind currently averaging around 10
mph, and I’m reading 11 degrees this morning at 9400’.
Avalanche Conditions:
We’ve received numerous reports
of triggered wind slabs in the mountains of
Wind slabs formed Wednesday night and
yesterday will likely be the biggest threat in the backcountry, with dry sluffs
and cornice falls also possible at upper elevations. Recent drifts and wind slabs up to around a
foot deep will be fairly stiff today, and they would normally be fairly easy to
identify and avoid, except they’re now obscured by a couple inches of fresh
snow from overnight. The huge cornices
in the region now present an obvious danger, especially when it’s stormy,
windy, or warm. Large cornices could be
sensitive to your weight today and may break further back than you expect. Wind slabs often form on the slope just below
cornices. It is always a good idea in
the spring to stay off of and out from under these monsters.
Wet
avalanches will rapidly become our greatest concern with this weekend’s intense
warm up. Air temperatures should stay
fairly cool today, but solar warming from the intense, high angled spring sun could
well cause the fresh or surface snow to quickly become saturated and prone to
wet avalanching. Warming will intensify
in the next few days and snow that’s stayed dry up until now will start to
melt; a scenario which will certainly increase the avalanche danger. This weekend you should avoid and stay out
from under steep slopes with saturated surface snow, especially in the heat of
Bottom Line:
There’s a MODERATE danger in the backcountry, and you could trigger
wind slab avalanches on steep slopes in exposed terrain mainly at upper
elevations. Solar warming may cause a MODERATE danger of wet avalanches on steep sunny slopes,
with point-release type avalanches possible.
Rapidly and significantly warming temperatures over the coming weekend
will cause the danger of wet avalanches to rise and become much more widespread. Avoid and stay out from under large cornices
and steep slopes with saturated snow, especially in the heat of the day…..
Mountain Weather: A cool northerly flow will keep air
temperatures down today, but a ridge of high pressure will move over the region
tomorrow and temperatures will begin to climb drastically. Expect a daily 10 degree increase in both
high and low temperatures until they peak on around Tuesday…Models disagree
beyond that point, but a weak and splitting storm appears possible mid-week.
Even though you can ride
anywhere these days, you should be sure to keep motor vehicles in terrain
that’s open. Riding on public lands designated as “closed to motor vehicles” or
as a National Forest Wilderness only jeopardizes the future of our sport, and
fines for motor vehicle trespass have been recently increased. (MV wilderness trespass
photos)
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.
