Ogden Avalanche Advisory

Forecaster: Bruce Tremper

BOTTOM LINE

Danger by aspect and elevation on slopes approaching 35° or steeper.
(click HERE for tomorrow's danger rating)


Danger Rose Tutorial

In areas that received less than 6 inches of new snow overnight, the danger remains mostly LOW with pockets of MODERATE. In areas that received 6-12 inches of new snow overnight, the danger is MODERATE with areas of CONSIDERABLE. This includes primarily the Provo and Ogden area mountains.

CURRENT CONDITIONS

A moist southwest flow has been pounding favored areas such as Ben Lomond Peak with 12 inches of snow and an incredible 2.6 inches of water overnight. Snowbasin has 6 inches of snow. Sundance has 12 inches on their upper mountains with 1.6 inches of water, giving them 29 inches of storm snow since Friday. The Cottonwood Canyons, which typically don’t do as well on a southwest flow got only 3-4 inches overnight. Temperatures have dropped a little and are around 25 degrees at 8,000’ and the mid teens on the ridge tops. Winds have thankfully remained fairly light, 10 gusting to 25 from the southwest and twice that speed on the very exposed peaks favored by southwest winds such as Mt. Ogden. Riding conditions remain quite good with wetter, denser snow than we are used to but I haven’t heard any complaints.

RECENT ACTIVITY

There was no reported avalanche activity from the backcountry yesterday as the dense, new snow seemed fairly well bonded to the underlying snow. You could find some cracking along upper elevation wind exposed ridges, but they seemed quite stubborn. There was likely more activity in the Ogden and Provo area mountains but few people were getting out because of the poor visibility.

THREAT #1
WHERE PROBABILITY SIZE TREND
      Over the next 24 hours.

As the new snow accumulates we will likely see more and more of the usual problems within the new snow such as sluffing and soft slabs. The avalanche danger will be one notch higher in areas that got a foot or more of snow overnight such as Ogden and Provo. Be sure to jump on test slopes and dig down with your hand regularly to see how well the new snow is bonding, and be especially careful of steep slopes with recent deposits of wind drifted snow.

THREAT #2
WHERE PROBABILITY SIZE TREND
      Over the next 24 hours.

Although the buried layers of surface hoar and near surface faceted snow seems to have bonded up quite well in the Salt Lake and Park City area mountains, people are reporting more problems with it in other areas, especially in Logan and Provo. It seems most prevalent in sheltered, low and mid elevation slopes. It’s very inconsistent, but keep your antennae fully extended for these buried, persistent layers that could give you a nasty surprise. Once again, practice slope cuts and other defensive techniques.

MOUNTAIN WEATHER

We should see snow continuing this morning with a break by mid day. Then, we get a stronger pulse for tonight into Tuesday, which should give us another 8 inches of snow with temperatures dropping about 10 degrees as a colder, more unstable pocket drifts over us. This steady series of storms are all tracking south of us through southern Utah and Arizona, so we are left with the dregs on a southwest flow, so these are rather unusual, tricky storms for us.

GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

Tickets are now available for the annual Backcountry Awareness Dinner on February 13th, with registration through the Snowbird Renaissance Center.

Beacon training parks are up and running! There is one at Snowbasin, one on the Park City side at the top of Canyon’s gondola, one in Little Cottonwood near the Snowbird parking structure on the bypass road, and in Big Cottonwood a training park is at the west end of Solitude's lower parking lot.

If you want to get this avalanche advisory e-mailed to you daily click HERE.

For a text only version, the link is on the left side bar, near the top.

UDOT highway avalanche control work info can be found by calling (801) 975-4838. Our statewide toll free line is 1-888-999-4019 (early morning, option 8).

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Your snow and avalanche observations help everyone in the backcountry community. Please let us know what you're seeing by leaving a message at (801) 524-5304 or 1-800-662-4140, or email us at uac@utahavalanchecenter.org. (Fax 801-524-6301).

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.

Drew will update this advisory by 7:30 tomorrow morning.

This information does not apply to developed ski areas or highways where avalanche control is normally done.  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.

This advisory provided by the USDA Forest Service, in partnership with:

The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center, Utah Division of State Parks and Recreation, Utah Division of Emergency Management, Salt Lake County, Salt Lake Unified Fire Authority and the friends of the La Sal Avalanche Center. See our Sponsors Page for a complete list.