BOTTOM LINE

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

Danger Rose Tutorial

The avalanche danger is MODERATE on slopes steeper then 35 degrees especially on northwest through east aspects. Human triggered avalanches are possible. Watch west through southeast facing slopes to weaken with the mild temperatures. Continue to follow backcountry protocol by only putting one person in avalanche terrain at a time and clear the runnout zones.

CURRENT CONDITIONS

Temperatures are very mild along the ridges this morning in the 30 degree range with things a bit cooler in the drainage bottoms. Winds are light at the mid and lower elevations from a generally southwest direction. Winds along the ridges have picked up a bit along the ridges gusting into the 20s and 30s. The snow surface is a mix of mostly wind effected snow, sun crusts and loose faceted snow in the sheltered locations. If you're willing to poke around in some of the obscure areas, you can find soft untracked snow that provides pleasurable riding.

RECENT ACTIVITY

No new avalanche activity was reported from the backcountry on Friday. The snowpack is variable to say the least. Weak snow is the common theme. In some areas, weak snow exists near the ground with a slab on top of it. Some areas have the weakest snow near the surface or within the upper layers. Some areas have weak snow that's been capped off by recent wind crusts and slabs. And some areas are just plain thin and contain nothing but weak snow from the surface to the ground. The take home message here is things are fairly quiet now but if the anticipated storms produce next week, the avalanche danger will be on the rise.

THREAT #1

WHERE

PROBABILITY

SIZE

TREND

Over the next 24 hours.

The primary concern for today is the remote chance of triggering a slab that's sitting on top of weak faceted snow. While, avalanche activity has currently slowed and collapsing and cracking of the snowpack (obvious signs of instability) has been rare over the last few days, the snowpack structure is still poor in numerous areas. Shear and propagation tests do yield poor results in some areas. Most likely areas for this are mid and upper elevations with slopes that face northwest through east. Structure plays a role as well and the poorest structure is the thinner areas where a stronger layer of snow is sitting on a weak layer of snow near the ground.

One other thought has to do with the mild temperatures along the ridges this morning. The warm temperatures may be enough to weaken some of the sun crusts that are tying things together on the west through southeast facing aspects. If this happens, it may be possible to trigger something into faceted snow on those aspects as well. I'm not totally convinced this will happen but it's worth thinking about.

MOUNTAIN WEATHER

We'll have mostly cloudy skies with mild temperatures today. Ridgetop temperatures will continue to be around 30. Ridgetop winds will be fairly light from the southwest. A minor disturbance will move through tonight into Sunday not producing much snow if any. A series of storms will move through during most of the upcoming week and should add some much needed snow to our pack. Again, we anticipate the avalanche danger to be on the rise.

GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

Discount Lift tickets: Ski Utah, Backcountry.com, Alta, Deer Valley, Park City, The Canyons, Wolf Mountain, Snowbasin, Beaver Mountain, Brighton, Sundance, and Solitude have donated a limited number of tickets for sale at discounted prices.

Wasatch Powderbird Guides flight plan.

Dawn Patrol Forecast Hotline, updated by 05:30:888-999-4019 option 8.

Daily observations are frequently posted by 10 pm each evening.

Free UAC iPhone app from Canyon Sports.

Subscribe to the daily avalanche advisory e-mail click HERE.

UDOT canyon closures UDOT at (801) 975-4838

Send us your avalanche and snow observations. You can also call 801-524-5304 or 800-662-4140, or email to uac@utahavalanchecenter.org

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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.

We will update this forecast tomorrow morning. Thanks for calling.

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.