There are still spaces in the Women’s Backcountry 101 avalanche class at Brighton (Feb 4/6) and the Women’s Snowbasin Avalanche Awareness class Feb (18/20). For more info on those classes and other education offerings through out the state, check out our Education Page.

Snow. The Ogden mountains picked up another inch or two overnight, pushing storm totals since later Saturday to about a foot or so.

Mountain temperatures are in the teens up high, 20F at 8000'. Don't let the light northerly winds this morning fool you - the northwesterlies blew 20-25mph at many locations for yesterday with mid-elevation anemometers showing gusty wind as well.

Increasing winds yesterday stiffened up some of the new snow and fresh wind drifts moved with explosives and intentional ski cuts through the afternoon. (Photo: Wilson). Loose snow slides were common in the morning; some wind drifts were triggered on approach.

And another thing - the US is up to 14 fatalities for the season, with 9 avalanche related deaths in the last 9 days alone. Some of these incident have been with very experienced backcountry folks. Something else that comes to mind when looking at the most recent 4 incidents below: in each of them, more than one person was caught and carried in the slide. The take-home here is to assess the terrain and put only one person on the slope - or even runout zones - at a time.

2015-2016
TOTAL FATALITIES: 14

Airbags? My email to a guy asking about the full burial with airbag on the Gobbler's incident from Thursday -

• Erik - there was no stauchwall on the fatal avalanche on Gobbler's and this explains why the debris field was enormous. The gal buried w an airbag a couple years ago in Grizzly Gulch was buried a couple feet down in a very deep debris pile in the terrain trap. My guess is that w/o the airbags, each of them would have been buried much more deeply and it's possible that we would now have two fatalities with these events instead of one. Nonetheless, airbags help with the asphyxia problem, not trauma. The take home is that the airbag stacks a couple extra points in your favor only if the terrain below is favorable. Safety airbags in a head-on with a Mack truck don't help so much.

We should be able to squeeze a few more instability flakes of snow out of the departing storm and transition toward mostly cloudy to partly cloudy skies. Temperatures should remain cold - we're looking at the low teens at 10,000', the low 20s at 8000'. Winds should remain light (10-15mph) from the north-northwest. Ridging will move in this afternoon through early Friday. Winds should remain generally light from the northwest over the next few days as 10,000' temps rise toward freezing by Wednesday. Models bring another series of storms through by late Friday.

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 snow and avalanche conditions. You can also call us at 801-524-5304, email by clicking HERE, or include #utavy in your tweet or Instagram.

To get help in an emergency (to launch a rescue) in the Wasatch, call 911.  Be prepared to give your GPS coordinates or the run name. Dispatchers have a copy of the Wasatch Backcountry Ski map.

Backcountry Emergencies. It outlines your step-by-step method in the event of a winter backcountry incident.

If you trigger an avalanche in the backcountry, but no one is hurt and you do not need assistance, please notify the nearest ski area dispatch to avoid a needless response by rescue teams. Thanks.

Salt Lake and Park City – Alta Central (801-742-2033), Canyons Resort/PCMR Dispatch (435)615-1911

Snowbasin Resort Dispatch (801-620-1017), Powder Mountain Dispatch (801-745-3772 x 123).

Sundance Dispatch (801-223-4150)

EMAIL ADVISORY  If you would like to get the daily advisory by email you will need to subscribe here.​ 

DAWN PATROL Hotline updated daily by 5-530am - 888-999-4019 option 8.

Twitter Updates for your mobile phone - DETAILS

UDOT canyon closures:  LINK TO UDOT, or on Twitter, follow @UDOTavy, @CanyonAlerts or @AltaCentral

Utah Avalanche Center mobile app - Get your advisory on your iPhone along with great navigation and rescue tools.

Powderbird Helicopter Skiing - Blog/itinerary for the day

Lost or Found something in the backcountry? - http://nolofo.com/

Ski Utah mobile snow updates

To those skinning uphill at resorts:  it is your responsibility to know the resort policy on uphill travel.  You can see the uphill travel policy for each resort here. IMPORTANT: Before skinning or hiking at a resort under new snow conditions, check in with Ski Patrol.  Resorts can restrict or cut off access if incompatible with control and grooming operations.

Benefit the Utah Avalanche Center when you shop from Backcountry.com or REI:  Click this link for Backcountry.com or this link to REI, shop, and they will donate a percent of your purchase price to the UAC.  Both offer free shipping (with some conditions) so this costs you nothing!

Benefit the Utah Avalanche Center when you buy or sell on ebay - set the Utah Avalanche Center as a favorite non-profit in your ebay account here and click on ebay gives when you buy or sell.  You can choose to have your seller fees donated to the UAC, which doesn't cost you a penny.

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 exist.