Heavy snowfall and strong and sustained winds in the last several days have created very dangerous avalanche conditions in the backcountry. There is a HIGH (4) avalanche danger and you should not venture into avalanche terrain today.... Easily triggered, dangerous and destructive avalanches 2 to 5 feet deep or deeper and very broad are likely on slopes steeper than about 30 degrees in the region... We recommend that you avoid backcountry travel.

The strongest yet in a productive series of Pacific storms slammed the Central Bear River Range with way too much heavy snow and sustained northwest winds over the weekend... It was just enough loading to put the fragile snowpack "over the edge" on many slopes...I urge that you stay clear of and out from under all steep slopes and obvious or historic avalanche paths today.

The Tony Grove Snotel reports a storm total of 4.8 inches of water equivalent accumulated since the 18th. Much of that came over the weekend with 2.9 inches of water (and around 2.5 feet of snow) reported in the last 72 hours. With 74 inches of total snow on the ground, the station now sits at 60% of normal water content for the date....It's 10 degrees at the 9700' Campbell Scientific weather station on Logan Peak, and the wind sensor appears to be rimed....

Sadly, I must report the first avalanche fatality of the season, which occurred yesterday in backcountry terrain north of the Snowbasin resort. Several avalanches occurred in the steep Hell's Canyon area, sharing run-out paths, and since the 40-year-old victim was alone at the time of the fatal avalanche, it is unclear exactly which one killed him....More information posted here.

Too much avalanche activity was reported to the Utah Avalanche Center in the last several days, with several people in the backcountry caught, carried and injured in large and scary avalanches. Yesterday, and handfull of huge and unsurvivable triggered avalanches were reported... Friday, in the backcountry near Brighton Ski Area, a close call was reported, with the total burial of a skier who was recovered by his partner using a beacon.

Locally; Yesterday a natural avalanche at 10:30 in the morning in Logan Canyon near Temple Fork crossed both lanes of highway 89 and shut down traffic for a while.. Saturday afternoon, a snowboarder remote triggered a scary avalanche in Beaver Canyon just above Logan Canyon Highway and a bit south of the parking pull-out used for Beaver backside runs...The dangerous avalanche on an east facing slope at around 6900' looked to be at least 2 feet deep..On Thursday a snowboarder was caught a carried in an avalanche in the Mount Naomi Wilderness.

2010 is so-far quite an active year for avalanches in the backcountry around Logan...Here's an updated local backcountry avalanche list:

Snow showers should taper off in the mountains today as a short-lived high pressure system builds over the region today...Light snow is possible tomorrow as the next splitting wave of Pacific storminess impacts the region on Tuesday. Despite the southerly track of the storm energy, widespread snow across the north is apparently possible, and we could pick up a few more inches of snow.

I will be issuing morning avalanche advisories for the Logan area on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

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Send us your avalanche and snow observations. You can also call me at 435-757-7578 or the SLC office at 800-662-4140, or email to uac@utahavalanchecenter.org

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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.

I will update this forecast Wednesday morning. Thanks for checking in....