Avalanche Advisory
Advisory: Logan Area Mountains Issued by Toby Weed for Monday - January 19, 2015 - 6:42am
bottom line

Heightened wind slab conditions exist and there's a MODERATE (level 2) avalanche danger on drifted slopes in the backcountry. In wind exposed terrain, triggered wind slab avalanches 1 to 2 feet deep are possible on slopes steeper than about 30 degrees. Conditions are more dangerous at upper elevations and on slopes facing northwest through southeast.

  • Evaluate the snow and terrain carefully.
  • Use caution around ridge-top cornices, which might break further back than you expect and could trigger avalanches on drifted slopes below.
  • Avoid wind deposited snow on slopes steeper than about 30 degrees.

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special announcement

Special thanks to Buttar's and ArcticCat for hooking us up with the light and powerful M8000. This machine will make our field days more fun, safe, and productive and will significantly boost our outreach and education efforts.

We picked up and tried out the new sled last week.

The sled in action included in our new Practicing Companion Rescue video.........HERE

current conditions

The 8400' Tony Grove Snotel reports 60 inches of total snow containing 117% of average water for the date, and its 30 degrees this morning. The UDOT Hwy 89 Logan Summit weather station reported west winds averaging in the mid-twenties overnight, with gusts in the 30s. Riding is easy across the zone on mostly supportable snow, and you can find nice settled shallow powder in shady sheltered terrain. The snow got pretty wet below about 7500' and on sunny slopes yesterday.

recent activity
  • I ran into a nice fresh natural wind slab on Friday in western Dry Canyon. The hard slab avalanche on a seriously drifted north facing slope at 8600' was a bit bigger than I expected to see, 1 to 3 feet deep and 400 to 500' wide. ***1-16-15 Video Observation .......HERE
  • On Saturday, 1-17-15, a rider was caught, carried, and partly buried by a small avalanche near Naomi Peak. Accident Report...... HERE

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A rider and his sled were caught and partly buried in a small avalanche near Naomi Peak over the weekend (1-17-15)

Visit our Backcountry Observations Page for more information from across the state and local.

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

Heightened conditions exist and triggered wind slab avalanches 1 to 3 feet deep are possible on some drifted upper elevation slopes. Observers report that the wind slabs were fairly stubborn yesterday, but more loading occurred and fresh drifts probably formed with strong westerly winds overnight. Wind slabs late last week built up on weak near surface facets, and in some cases, preserved surface hoar. An existing persistent weak layer, means it'll take more time for the instability to heal, and wind slab avalanches are possible on lower angled slopes than you might expect.

  • Watch for and avoid ridge-top cornices, which might break further back than you expect and could trigger avalanches on drifted slopes below.
  • Avoid wind drifts in and around terrain features like gullies and cliff bands, or cross-loaded into scoops and sub-ridges.
  • Drifts and wind slabs should be fairly obvious, consisting of stiffer snow, rounded, chalky looking, and perhaps hollow sounding, but a little new snow from overnight might make them a bit harder to see.
weather

Looks like it'll be mostly cloudy and breezy again in the mountains today. Expect a high temperature of 31 degrees at 8500', but temperatures should drop in the afternoon. West winds averaging in the teens are expected, and there's a 30 % chance of snow, but little in the way of accumulation. It'll be partly cloudy tonight with 10 to 20 mph west-northwest winds and a low temperature of 15 degrees expected. It'll be mostly sunny tomorrow, with a high temperature around 25 and light west winds. We don't see much in the way of storms in the near future, with a rather stagnant weather pattern apparently setting up.

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

general announcements

You can now receive advisories by email for the Logan Zone.  Go here for details.

 Get your advisory on your iPhone along with great navigation and rescue tools, with our updated,  Utah Avalanche Center mobile app 

Discount lift tickets are now available at Backcountry.com.  Thanks to Ski Utah and the Utah Resorts.  All proceeds go towards paying for Utah Avalanche Center avalanche and mountain weather advisories.

Benefit the Utah Avalanche Center when you shop from Backcountry.com or REI:  Click this link for Backcountry.com or this link to REI, shop, and they will donate a percent of your purchase price to the UAC.  Both offer free shipping (with some conditions) so this costs you nothing!

Benefit the Utah Avalanche Center when you buy or sell on ebay - set the Utah Avalanche Center as a favorite non-profit in your ebay account here and click on ebay gives when you buy or sell.  You can choose to have your seller fees donated to the UAC, which doesn't cost you a penny.

Please submit snow and avalanche observations from your ventures in the backcountry HERE. You can call us at 801-524-5304 or email HERE, or include #utavy in your Instagram or Tweet us @UAClogan. To report avalanche activity in the Logan Area or to contact the local avalanche forecaster call me, Toby, at 435-757-7578. 

I'll regularly update this advisory on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday mornings by about 7:30.   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.