Ogden Avalanche Advisory

Forecaster: Brett Kobernik

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

Our condolences go out to family and friends of a backcountry skier that was caught and killed in an avalanche on Wednesday. It occurred in the Silver Fork Meadows, an area that people are, perhaps, becoming too comfortable with during periods of instability. This is a reminder that these are serious avalanche paths. Ricardo was a friendly face that many new and crossed paths with in the backcountry. He will be greatly missed.


BOTTOM LINE

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


Danger Rose Tutorial

IT IS DANGEROUS IN THE BACKCOUNTRY. AVOID GETTING ONTO STEEP SLOPES AND AVOID BEING BELOW ANY STEEP SLOPES. AVALANCHES ARE RUNNING FAR SO STAY WELL AWAY FROM ANY RUNNOUT ZONES. The danger is CONSIDERABLE. This one word rating is basically useless in trying to convey the hazard to humans in the backcountry right now. KEEP YOUR SLOPE ANGLES LOW.


CURRENT CONDITIONS

A trace to a couple inches of snow fell on Wednesday with the minor disturbance that moved through. There were east winds that picked up a bit overnight and are now slowing again. This morning, temperatures are right around 20 degrees at many mountain locations.


RECENT ACTIVITY

Other activity from Wednesday included a MASSIVE slide that I unintentionally triggered while walking the Mt Wilson ridgeline. My partner and I were well back, on the safety of the ridge when we initiated the collapse and watched the avalanche break out 1/3 of a mile wide and rumble downhill hitting a small terrain feature which thrusted the debris 100 feet plus into the air.

Drew also triggered a sizable slide in Yellowjacket. This one tried to get a hold of him by breaking very far back on the low angle of the ridge. He grabbed a tree to keep from getting taken down.

Explosive work at the resorts in uncompacted terrain continues to bring out massive slides to the ground. Memo to Canyon's OB skiers: you are toying with death by screwing around in Dutches, Squaretop and the rest of those paths. Parents: do you know if your kids are leaving the resort?

Observations of other avalanches running to the ground continue to stream in. Many of these are of unknown occurrence time as well as unconfirmed trigger. What is known is they are dangerous. Almost all of the recent activity has broken into weak snow near the ground.


THREAT #1

WHERE PROBABILITY SIZE TREND
      Over the next 24 hours.

Avalanche conditions are not tricky at all in my book right now. It is so "in our face" with continued avalanche activity breaking to the ground. What I think is tricky is trying to fight off the lure of the fresh powder. We are so used to things stabilizing relatively quickly here in the Wasatch. This is not the case this year so far. It's been a long time now that we really haven't been able to get in to our favorite terrain which we normally visit quite frequently on most years. We need to continue to leave it alone. If you find yourself trying to justify why you are able to get onto steeper slopes, you probably already know the answer to whether you should be there in the first place. A clear day today with many untracked slopes could prove to be too tempting for some people.


THREAT #2

WHERE PROBABILITY SIZE TREND
No trend identified.

Along with the clear skies comes another fairly warm day. This warmth could be enough to change the structure on the sunny aspects making them become unstable. There's plenty of weakness scattered around on southerly aspects and I've experienced collapsing on south facing slopes the last two days. I would keep slope angles low on all aspects today. Also, consider the possibility for avalanches to occur off of roofs that have had a bunch of snow accumulate recently.


MOUNTAIN WEATHER

We'll see a few clouds this morning then mostly clear skies and mild temperatures. Winds will be fairly light with a few moderate gusts from the north or northeast. We'll have another couple days of pretty nice weather then a storm shaping up for Sunday. These nice clear days make us feel good but they are accident weather right now, please be careful out there.


GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

Be sure to attend the après-ski fundraiser at Snowbird for the Utah Avalanche Center, Saturday, February 6, 4:30-7, Hours d’oeuvres, beer, wine, music and silent auction. Golden Cliff, Cliff Lodge, $50. More information. Purchase tickets HERE.

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

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

Donate to your favorite non-profit – The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center. The UAC depends on contributions from users like you to support our work.

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.

Bruce will update this forecast on Friday 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.