Ogden Avalanche Advisory

Forecaster: Bruce Tremper

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

We need your help! Would you like a great mobile avalanche app? A new, slick website look? A better, easier-to-use information network? And something that all avalanche centers can use? There could be an app for that.

We are applying for a grant to help unify our website, email, SMS, and social media alerts and create an open source platform that could be used by any avalanche center. Check out the link. Click the Like button to vote for the project and spread this among your friends. The grant is awarded based on the number of votes:

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Hot tip: we still have some discount lift tickets for Snowbird and Alta available through Backcountry.com, which you can find HERE.


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 today for recent deposits of wind drifted snow. As always, avoid any steep slopes with recent wind drifts. There is also a MODERATE danger for deep slabs in the upper elevation northwest, north, northeast and east facing slopes.


CURRENT CONDITIONS

With apologies to Sarah Palin, among others, today we may finally get a little lipstick on the pig. Snow should begin this morning and give us a thin, new paint job--perhaps 3 inches and it should all be over by afternoon. It’s hard to get excited about such a wimpy event but after a number of days of very poor snow surface conditions, almost anything will pass for excitement.

Yesterday, there was slide-for-life frozen crusts on most aspects, which did not soften up until late in the day because of the cloud cover and strong wind. There are scraps of dry, old, settled snow on straight north slopes above about 10,000’.


RECENT ACTIVITY

There was no avalanche activity yesterday with the exception of an explosive-triggered, wet slab yesterday afternoon in Big Cottonwood Canyon at 9,700’ on a west facing slopes 2’-3 deep x 100’ wide.


THREAT #1

WHERE PROBABILITY SIZE TREND
      Over the next 10 hours.

With colder air blowing in today, it should lock up any wet avalanche activity, so the main avalanche problem will be the fresh wind slabs created by the dusting of new snow combined with strong southwest winds. These will be deposited on top of hard, frozen, sun crusts, which may be quite slick, so the wind slabs will be more sensitive than if the storm started in the heat of the afternoon, when they would bond better with a wet surface.

As always, avoid any steep slope with a recent wind drift. They will be 6 inches deep--perhaps as much as a foot along the ridges. Winds during the passage of a cold front are often gusty and swirling, so they may be deposited on a variety of aspects but especially on the north through east facing slopes along the ridges.


THREAT #2

WHERE PROBABILITY SIZE TREND
      Over the next 24 hours.

There is still the possibility of deep slabs in the upper elevation, thin snowpack areas such as repeater slide paths. These will be low probability - high consequence avalanches. In other words, hard to trigger but if you do, they will be very large and unsurvivable.


MOUNTAIN WEATHER

Light snow showers and gusty winds will occur this morning and the snow showers should end by afternoon, leaving us with perhaps 3 inches of new snow. Woo Hoo! Temperatures will continue to drop and level off in the mid 20's and wind will blow 25 mph from the south, turning to the southwest later in the morning and they will likely gust into the 40's

Tonight and tomorrow should be partly cloudy with the overnight low near 20 and the temperature should rise to near freezing on Tuesday. We have a few clouds and a slight chance of precipitation on Thursday and the possibility of a stronger cold front on about April Fools Day.


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 and Park City – Alta Central (801-742-2033)

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

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

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

Twitter Updates for your mobile phone http://utahavalanchecenter.org/twitter)

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

Wasatch Powderbird Guides does daily updates about where they'll be operating on this blog http://powderbird.blogspot.com/.

Remember your information can save lives.If you see anything we should know about, please 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 by clicking HERE

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.

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.