Advisory: Logan Area Mountains | utahavalanchecenter.org

Avalanche Advisory

Advisory: Logan Area Mountains	Issued by Toby Weed for Wednesday - April 9, 2014 - 7:36am

bottom line

Avoid and stay out from under steep slopes with saturated snow. Very warm temperatures today after no overnight freeze will create dangerous wet avalanche conditions and a CONSIDERABLE or level 3 danger in the backcountry. Natural wet avalanches are possible and triggered avalanches likely on slopes steeper than about 30 degrees, especially during the heat of midday.. Careful snowpack evaluation, cautious route-finding, and conservative decision making will be essential for safe travel in the backcountry today.

current conditions

The snow will by soft, wet, and slow today after a poor overnight re-freeze, and we're expecting a very warm and mostly sunny day again in the mountains. The Tony Grove Snotel at 8400' reports 42 degrees and there's 104 inches of total snow, with 136% of average water content for the date. It's 39 degrees at the 9700' CSI Logan Peak weather station, and I'm currently reading southwest winds averaging a bit above 20 mph.

recent activity

Several people triggered shallow wind slabs Monday in the Central Wasatch Range backcountry, with one person able to self arrest after being caught. Locally: A snowboarder unintentionally triggered and was able to ride off of a shallow wind slab on the north face of Millville Peak. Also, observers reported natural wet avalanche activity in lower Providence Canyon, Wood Camp and in the Wellsvilles from over the weekend. Visit our Backcountry Observations Page for details on the season's activity.

A shallow triggered soft slab on Millville Peak, 4-7-2014. Flygare

Avalanche Problem 1

type	aspect/elevation	characteristics
		LIKELIHOOD LIKELY UNLIKELY SIZE LARGE SMALL TREND INCREASING DANGER SAME DECREASING DANGER over the next 24 hours
description The mountains may look like they are dripping hot wax by this evening. Natural and triggered wet avalanches are likely today in steep terrain. You're likely to trigger loose wet avalanches in steep terrain again today, and more dangerous shallow wet slabs are possible in some areas. Avoid and stay out from under large and overhanging cornices along major ridge-lines, which are likely to break further back than you expect and could trigger avalanches on slopes below. It's especially important to stay out from under these guys during the heat of the day, when they sag and buckle, and some will likely naturally fail and calve off in large chunks.

type

aspect/elevation

characteristics

LIKELIHOOD

LIKELY

UNLIKELY

SIZE

LARGE

SMALL

TREND

INCREASING DANGER

SAME

DECREASING DANGER

over the next 24 hours

description

The mountains may look like they are dripping hot wax by this evening. Natural and triggered wet avalanches are likely today in steep terrain.
You're likely to trigger loose wet avalanches in steep terrain again today, and more dangerous shallow wet slabs are possible in some areas.
Avoid and stay out from under large and overhanging cornices along major ridge-lines, which are likely to break further back than you expect and could trigger avalanches on slopes below. It's especially important to stay out from under these guys during the heat of the day, when they sag and buckle, and some will likely naturally fail and calve off in large chunks.

weather

It'll be mostly sunny and pretty hot in the mountains today, with 9000' high temperatures forecast to reach 54 degrees. Expect overnight low temperatures, well above freezing tonight, around 36 degrees, with fairly strong west winds and a chance of some rain and thunder. Warm weather will continue through the week, with a few snow showers possible on Thursday. Hoping for a return to sub-freezing nighttime temperatures on Friday night.

Check out our one-stop weather page........HERE

general announcements

Utah Avalanche Center mobile app - Get your advisory on your iPhone along with great navigation and rescue tools.

Remember your information can save lives. If you see anything we should know about, please participate in the creation of our own community avalanche advisory by submitting snow and avalanche conditions. You can also call us at 801-524-5304 or 800-662-4140, email by clicking HERE, or include #utavy in your tweet or Instagram.

I'll issue weekend and intermittent advisories through April.

This advisory is produced by the U.S.D.A. Forest Service, which is solely responsible for its content. It describes only general avalanche conditions and local variations always exist.

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