There's a CONSIDERABLE danger on steep upper elevation slopes in the backcountry.  There are dangerous avalanche conditions in the mountains.  Use conservative decision making, careful route finding, and good travel habits.  Training and experience are essential in upper elevation terrain....

Yesterday the Tony Grove Snotel recorded 16 inches of snow accumulation containing 1.4 inches of water.  You'll find deep powder at upper elevations if you can make it up there.  The Tony Grove road is getting fairly sketchy for wheeled vehicles, with 2'+ of snow on the unmaintained road, and several people got pretty stuck up there yesterday....

A northwest wind is puffing along at around 15 mph at the Campbell Scientific weather station on Logan Peak,  much quieter than yesterday morning's gust to 76 mph.  Temperatures plummitted overnight and it's currently one degree above zero at 9400'.

A party of backcountry skiers triggered a couple soft slab avalanches yesterday in the Miller Bowl area south of Tony Grove Lake.  I don't think they were too surprised when the avalanches occurred because the potential was obvious... The avalanches were around a foot deep and ended up running on the stout rain-crust from mid-November.  (photos)

I found a suspect layer consisting of faceted crystals and graupel above the crust in the crown.

We might pick up a few inches in the mountains as showery snowfall should resume...The rest of the week looks unsettled and cold, with the most productive weather effecting the mountains of southern Utah. 

The major access to upper elevation snow is via the Tony Grove Road, which is not maintained for wheeled vehicles in the winter.  It is however, heavily used by different wintertime user groups, and this time of year patience and restrained speeds in congested areas are important safety concerns....

If you have observations from the backcountry, especially if you see or trigger an avalanche, please let us know.  You can leave a message at (435) 755-3638 or 1-800-662-4140, or email us at uac@utahavalanchecenter.org. (Fax 801-524-6301).

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The information in this advisory is from the U.S.D.A. Forest Service, which is solely responsible for its content.  This advisory describes general avalanche conditions and local variations always occur.