Avalanche Advisory
Advisory: Ogden Area Mountains Issued by Trent Meisenheimer for Tuesday - February 7, 2017 - 6:32am
bottom line

The avalanche danger today is HIGH at upper elevations where fresh wind slabs can be easily triggered. The danger is CONSIDERABLE at mid to lower elevations. Travel in avalanche terrain is NOT recommended. If you step out of bounds at a ski resort you're stepping into HIGH danger.

Many ice climbs are directly in avalanche paths from above. With increasing temperatures and rain up to 7500' it's best to avoid climbing in those areas.
avalanche warning

THE FOREST SERVICE UTAH AVALANCHE CENTER IN SALT LAKE CITY HAS ISSUED A BACKCOUNTRY AVALANCHE WARNING.

* TIMING...FROM NOON TODAY UNTIL 6AM MST WEDNESDAY

* AFFECTED AREA...FOR THE MOUNTAINS OF NORTHERN UTAH AND SE IDAHO INCLUDING THE WASATCH RANGE...WESTERN UINTA RANGE...BEAR RIVER RANGE...WELLSVILLE RANGE.

* AVALANCHE DANGER...THE AVALANCHE DANGER FOR THE WARNING AREA IS HIGH.

* REASON/IMPACTS...RAIN, HEAVY SNOWFALL, AND STRONG WINDS ARE CREATING UNSTABLE SNOW AT ALL ELEVATIONS. VERY DANGEROUS AVALANCHE CONDITIONS EXIST, NATURAL AVALANCHES ARE LIKELY. STAY OFF OF AND OUT FROM UNDER SLOPES STEEPER THAN 30 DEGREES. AVOID AVALANCHE RUN OUT ZONES.

THIS WARNING DOES NOT APPLY TO SKI AREAS WHERE AVALANCHE HAZARD REDUCTION MEASURES ARE PERFORMED.
special announcement

Thursday 2/9- This week the Utah Adventure Journal Speaker Series hosts professional ski-mountaineer Andrew McLean. Andrew has a PhD in mountain mistakes and will be sharing lessons learned from personal ski mountaineering experiences with avalanches, crevasses, long falls, getting lost, partner malfunctions and many other mountain mishaps. Andrew is the author of The Chuting Gallery and a veteran of over 25 skiing expeditions. For all event details click here.
current conditions

We have a energetic storm on the doorstep this morning. Strong west-south-west winds continue to wreak havoc along the ridgelines this morning. Upper elevation anemometers are recording speeds of 30-35 mph gusting into the 50's. The strong winds are swirling in the canyon and even lower elevations are picking up 20 mph average speeds with gusts into the upper 30's. Temperatures are mild in the lower canyon and many trail heads are above freezing. Upper elevations temps are in the 25 degree (F) range.

We have picked up roughly 5-10" inches (0.5-1.15" h20) of new snow in the past 24 hrs in Ogden. Snow densities will increase throughout the day making the snow upside down and heavy. Expect rain/snow mix up to 7500' in elevation today.

recent activity

No significant avalanche activity was reported from the backcountry yesterday. However, I think today is a different story and avalanches will be running fast and far as the day wears on.

Avalanche Problem 1
type aspect/elevation characteristics
LIKELIHOOD
LIKELY
UNLIKELY
SIZE
LARGE
SMALL
TREND
INCREASING DANGER
SAME
DECREASING DANGER
over the next 24 hours
description

Strong southerly winds have formed fresh wind slabs this morning. Wind slabs will be gauranteed along mid and upper elevation ridgelines today. Very dangerous avalanche conditions exist and travel in avalanche terrain is NOT recommended.

Heads up: We will have warm air advection as the storm devolpes, this means temperatures will be on the rise and snow densities will be increasing throughout the day. This will make the snow heavy and upside down. As the snow stacks up - you can expect to trigger avalanches even in wind sheltered terrain.

Avalanche Problem 2
type aspect/elevation characteristics
LIKELIHOOD
LIKELY
UNLIKELY
SIZE
LARGE
SMALL
TREND
INCREASING DANGER
SAME
DECREASING DANGER
over the next 24 hours
description

With so much snowfall over the last several weeks, buried persistent weak layers seem to have healed. However, they may still exist and are worth looking for especially as we get more snow over the next several days.

Dig 4 feet into the snow, look for a stripe in a clean pit wall, and do a quick extended column test of course from a safe location.With some practice, this process should only take 5 minutes. Mark Staples has a good video HERE that shows surface hoar and propagation from a couple days ago in the Uinta mountains.

Avalanche Problem 3
type aspect/elevation characteristics
LIKELIHOOD
LIKELY
UNLIKELY
SIZE
LARGE
SMALL
TREND
INCREASING DANGER
SAME
DECREASING DANGER
over the next 24 hours
description

loose wet avalanches are possible at the lowest elevations where overnight temperatures were near 40 degrees (F). We are expecting rain up to roughly 7500' in elevation today as the storm arrives. Any rain on cold dry snow will cause avalanches.

weather

Today will be a wild, wet, and windy day in the mountains. Did I mention wind? Winds will be increasing throughout the day and into the afternoon as the storm fully arrives with average speeds in the 30's & 40's gusting into the 70's at upper elevations. Temperatures will also be on the rise and the rain/snow line will creep up to 7500' by mid afternoon. You can expect somewhere around 10" of snow by the dinner hour with close to an inch of water. Areas that are favored by a southwest flow could see more.

general announcements

Remember your information can save lives. If you see anything we should know about, please help us out 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 request 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.

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 critical to know the resort policy on uphill travel. You can see the uphill travel policy for each resort here.

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.