Ogden Avalanche Advisory

Forecaster: Bruce Tremper

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT


BOTTOM LINE

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


Danger Rose Tutorial

There is a mostly Low (Level 1) danger of human triggered avalanches today with pockets of Moderate (Level 2) danger on any slope approaching 35 degrees or steeper with recent deposits of wind drifted snow. You will find these mostly along the upper elevation ridges.

The wind is forecasted to remain light, but if it does pick up, you can expect the danger to become more widespread.


CURRENT CONDITIONS

The 3-4 inches of extremely light snow on Saturday night gave us a new paint job but the blemishes under the surface remain intact. There's hard wind-damaged snow at upper elevation wind exposed terrain, sun crusts on the southerly facing slopes, and the northerly-facing, wind-and-sun-sheltered slopes still have some soft, recrystallized snow but if the slope is popular enough to have a name, it's probably tracked out.

Winds have been light, all the new snow is intact with the exception of the most exposed ridges. Temperatures this morning were near zero but they should warm up to around 10 degrees today.


RECENT ACTIVITY

No avalanche activity occurred in the backcountry yesterday with the exception of some minor sluffing of the very light, new snow. One person unintentionally triggered a rather largish cornice in the Powder Park area of Big Cottonwood Canyon near Salt Lake City, but it did not trigger any slabs below the cornice.


THREAT #1

WHERE PROBABILITY SIZE TREND
      Over the next 24 hours.

Although the winds have remained light during and after our very light dusting of snow on Saturday night, you can find some wind-deposited pillows of new snow along the most exposed ridges. As always, you should avoid steep slopes with recent wind deposits, which will look smooth and rounded and feel slabby. These will produce mostly shallow, soft slabs.

Note for the future: We have gotten spoiled by a very stable snowpack so far this season but with the next storm--the party is over.

Remember, we have widespread areas of surface hoar, which the last dusting of new snow buried intact. (See Brandon Dodge's cool backlit photos of surface hoar layers. ) The new snow does not weigh enough to activate the layer, but all we need is a slab on top and avalanches will start to rock and roll. If the wind comes up or if we get a significant amount of new snow, then the avalanche danger will instantly spike upwards. Surface hoar is notorious for producing sensitive avalanches that run on gentler slopes than we're accustomed. We expect increased winds, warmer temperatures and snow by later in the week and the avalanche conditions will almost certainly get dangerous in a hurry and persist for several days after the storm.


MOUNTAIN WEATHER

We will have continued cold temperatues--near zero this morning, clawing up to around 6 degrees by mid day and minus 6 overnight. We have a light, northerly flow with some imbedded, very light snow showers, which will add an additional skiff of new snow today. Skies should be mostly to partly cloudy.

On Tuesday, we should start a warming trend with ridge top temperatures rising to the mid teens, the mid 20's n Wednesday and near freezing on Thursday. Significantly stronger winds and more snow should kick in around Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, when you can expect the avalanche danger to rise dramatically.


GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

If you trigger an avalanche in the backcountry - especially if you are adjacent to a ski area – please call the following teams to alert them to the slide and whether anyone is missing or not. Rescue teams can be exposed to significant hazard when responding to avalanches, and do not want to do so when unneeded. Thanks.

Salt Lake – Alta Central (801-742-2033)

Ogden – Snowbasin Patrol Dispatch (801-620-1017)

Provo – Sundance Patrol Dispatch (801-223-4150)

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.

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.

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

UDOT canyon closures UDOT at (801) 975-4838

You have the opportunity to participate in the creation of our own community avalanche advisory by submitting avalanche and snow observations. You can also call us at 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.