The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center in Logan are offering a Backcountry 101 class for women next weekend... The class will start with a classroom session on Thursday night (Feb.9th) and include a full field day session on Saturday (Feb. 11th) up in the Garden City Bowls near the Hwy 89 summit in Logan Canyon... It's a great time to learn about snow and avalanches..... Click HERE for more details...

There's a level 3 or Considerable danger on upper elevation slopes with recent deposits of drifted snow, where you are likely to trigger wind slabs or dangerous deep slab avalanches. Wind slab avalanches are likely on many recently drifted slopes, and drifting occurred yesterday in somewhat unusual areas. There are also still many areas with pockets of level 3 or Considerable danger, and dangerous deep slab avalanche conditions persist on slopes with poor snow structure, especially on very steep upper and mid elevation slopes facing the northern half of the compass. Careful snowpack evaluation, cautious route-finding, and conservative decision-making will again be essential in the backcountry today, and you should continue to avoid steep drifted slopes at upper and mid elevations. You'll find safer conditions in sheltered areas, on south facing slopes, and at lower elevations, and there's still lots of nice fast and fun snow in lower angled terrain.

Strong and sustained winds from the east found plenty of soft snow to drift about, and we'll find wind slabs and stiff wind deposits in somewhat unusual places again today.You can still find plenty of enjoyable and fast shallow powder in sheltered areas, and lower angled slopes are both fun and much less dangerous than steeper terrain. Riding conditions are pretty good, with nice supportable snow allowing you to ride almost anywhere you want to go...The probability of deadly deep slab avalanches in steep terrain is gradually diminishing, but the potential persists on many steep slopes in the zone, and the consequences of being caught are still quite severe.

It's 15 degrees up at the 8400' Tony Grove Snotel this morning, and it looks like the station picked up an inch of new snow overnight. There is 71 inches of total snow on the ground containing 81% of normal water for the date. The CSI Logan Peak weather station at 9700' reports 11 degrees, with a gradual decline in easterly winds overnight. After sustaining 40 mph hourly average wind speeds yesterday and 30 mph averages yesterday afternoon and evening, winds diminished into the upper 20s early this morning..

There were a couple unintentionally rider triggered wind slab avalanches yesterday in the Logan Zone. A snowboarder triggered a good sized wind slab and was able to ride out of it in Franklin Basin north of the Idaho State Line. A snowmobiler triggered a shallow and unexpected wind slab, a bit less than a foot deep and around 70' wide as he descended a small slope near the top of Millville and Providence Canyons. Reports of significant audible collapsing in the zone continued to trickle in last week, with the most recent on the west facing slope above and east of Beaver Creek on Thursday .. Collapsing or whumphfing is a bad sign indicating lingering deep slab instability.... Bruce Tremper describes the deep slab problem in detail in this new video tutorial.

(go to our current conditions page for more details on local activity and reports of other recent avalanches in Utah)

It will be rather windy and cold again today in the mountains, with a gradually diminishing east-southeast wind, high temperatures in the upper twenties, and mostly sunny skies. It will be clear and chilly tonight with low temperatures in the teens and still breezy with continuing southeast winds. It will feel much warmer tomorrow, with less cruel winds from the southwest, but similar temperatures. Looks like a strong high pressure system will slowly move in and control the weather well into next week, so we can expect fair and mild weather in the mountains and colder hazy and smoggy conditions to develop in the valleys....

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Please send us your observations from the backcountry especially if you see or trigger an avalanche, but also even if you don't.. go to avalanche and snow observations. You can also call me directly at 435-757-7578 or leave us a message at our office, 801-524-5304.... And, you can always send us a simple email by clicking HERE

I will update this advisory by around 7:30 in the morning on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.....

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.