Pockets of CONSIDERABLE danger exist for triggering dangerous avalanches 2-4’ deep. They’re most likely found on mid and upper elevation northwest through east through southeast facing terrain and more pronounced along the periphery of the Tri-canyons. These are days that we see avalanche accidents. We’re a couple days past the natural avalanche cycle, but the snow has yet to adjust. Recall the danger parabola from a couple years ago. Lightning fatalities are the same way.

We’re sandwiched between a storm splitting off to the south and the main jet stream to the north. The dreaded split-flow regime. Perhaps the Logan area will pick up a couple inches. Temperatures are in the single digits up high and down low – with temps in the upper teens along the 'thermal belt". Winds have picked up from the southwest in the last hour or two, blowing 20-25mph with gusts to 35. Riding conditions remain quite good though windows of sun and greenhousing dampened many southerly aspects by midday.

Most prudently rode inbounds at our world class resorts or kept a sharp eye on terrain and slope angles yesterday. The one slide we did hear about was significant, however. An experienced party in the upper Lambs canyon/Mt. Aire vicinity remotely triggered a 2.5’ deep and 400’ wide avalanche on a steep north facing slope at 8100’. Digging into the snow, they reported that it slid on very weak snow above the decomposing MLK rain crust from mid-January. I later received an email from another party that had triggered a near identical one from the day before. Still hard to forget how weak that snow was from the accident investigation there on the 5th.

Late breaking news has the story of an avalanche accident and an 8 minute full burial in Big Springs of the south fork of Provo Canyon. It ended with a live recovery of an unconscious victim, but apparently all’s well. Details are 2nd hand and I hope to get more info today.

More reports and photos continue in of the widespread natural avalanche cycle from late Saturday into Sunday. We appreciate hearing any and all reports, particularly of avalanches that potentially stepped down into old snow.

We’ll see partly to mostly cloudy skies as a weak disturbance passes to the north. Winds will be 20-25mph from the west. Temps will rise to the mid to upper teens at 10,000’. We’ll be under a moist unsettled westerly flow through the week with another storm likely on tap late Friday into the weekend.

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

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.

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