Avalanche Advisory
Advisory: Logan Area Mountains Issued by Toby Weed for Tuesday - December 5, 2017 - 7:09am
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Heightened avalanche conditions exist on upper and mid elevation slopes in the backcountry. Pockets with more dangerous conditions and a CONSIDERABLE danger might be found in exposed upper elevation terrain. Human triggered persistent and wind slab avalanches are possible. Evaluate snow and terrain carefully. Avoid steep drifted slopes at upper elevations.

  • Fast moving and long-running avalanches are possible on smooth and very hard underlying snow.
  • A ride in even a small avalanche could be particularly dangerous due to the hard underlying snow and potential for being raked through rocks or deadfall below.



special announcement

Please join us for our 14th annual "Pray for Snow" fundraiser/party, Thursday, December 7 at 6 PM. This year's new location is at the new Cache Venue, 119 South Main St in downtown Logan. Go HERE for advance tickets and more information.

Don’t know what to buy your favorite skier for Christmas? Discount lift tickets for Alta, Snowbird, Brighton, Solitude, Deer Valley, Snowbasin,and Beaver Mountain are now available, donated by the resorts to benefit the Utah Avalanche Center. Details and order information here. These make a great holiday gift and all proceeds go towards paying for avalanche forecasting and education!

current conditions

The Tony Grove Snotel at 8400' reports 10°F and 38" of total snow containing 121% of average SWE (Snow Water Equivalent). The site recorded 27" of new light snow morning, and we found nice deep powder conditions up at Beaver Mt all day. It's 6°F at 9700' at the CSI Logan Peak weather station, with northwest wind currently blowing 6 mph.

Just beneath the fresh powder, shallow early season snow conditions exist, and hitting rocks or stumps is a significant hazard. Travel cautiously and keep your speed down. The Tony Grove Road is not maintained for wheeled travel in the winter.

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

Record warmth around Thanksgiving melted a good deal of snow across the zone, and a solid refreeze last week turned the remaining snow rock hard. A couple brush-by storms deposited an inch or two of snow and this is now weak. In some areas, yesterday's snow may not bond well to the hard Thanksgiving snow surface especially on slopes where yesterday's surface snow is weak, faceted and in some areas capped with surface hoar of frost. Persistent slab avalanches could be fairly wide and might run fast and far on the slick underlying snow.


The snow surface at upper elevations Saturday was sparkling with widespread feathery surface hoar or frost crystals. Surface hoar often becomes a tricky persistent weak layer once buried. (Jensen, 12/2/17)

Avalanche Problem 2
type aspect/elevation characteristics
LIKELIHOOD
LIKELY
UNLIKELY
SIZE
LARGE
SMALL
TREND
INCREASING DANGER
SAME
DECREASING DANGER
over the next 24 hours
description

Monday's light powder snow will easily be drifted into stiffer wind slabs in exposed terrain. Avoid fresh drifts near ridges and in and around terrain features like gullies, rock bands and sub-ridges.

weather

Strong high pressure centered to the west of Utah will maintain a stable northerly flow across the Great Basin through the end of the week.

general announcements

EMAIL ADVISORY: If you would like to get the daily advisory by email you will need to subscribe here.

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.

Remember your information can save lives. If you see anything we should know about, please help us out by submitting snow and avalanche conditions. You can also call us at 801-524-5304, email by clicking HERE, or include #utavy in your tweet or Instagram.

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.