Avalanche Advisory
Advisory: Ogden Area Mountains Issued by Drew Hardesty for Wednesday - February 15, 2017 - 7:06am
bottom line

Areas of MODERATE danger exist for longer running dry sluffs in the weakening surface snow on the northerly aspects. The danger on the sunny aspects will also rise to MODERATE with daytime warming . Remember that your choice of terrain will either amplify or minimize the overall risk of incident.




special announcement

Thursday, Feb 23

Learn how to travel safely in avalanche terrain. This workshop begins with a three hour evening class followed by a on-the-snow field day. For more info -
current conditions

Skies are clear. Winds are light from the northeast. Mountain temperatures are in the upper 20s to low 30s in the alpine. Riding conditions remain quite good in a few inches of recrystallized snow on the northerly aspects. Southerly aspects offer varying degrees of breakable to supportable corrugated sun crusts that will soften and break down with daytime heating.

recent activity

Reported activity yesterday included wet sluffing and an unintentionally triggered shallow wet slab running on last week's rain crust.

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

Normal Caution. Remember that risk is inherent in mountain travel. Avalanche concerns for the backcountry include the following:

  1. Dry loose point release avalanches. The top few inches of last Friday/Saturday's storm has become incredibly weak and cohesionless through a process called diurnal faceting or recrystallization. You should expect to get some loose dry snow moving in the sun-sheltered terrain on slopes approaching 40° and steeper...with some moving fast and far at the mid elevations on the slick rain crust from the 10th. These should be easy to avoid or manage unless you're in steep confined terrain with nowhere to run.
  2. Wet loose point release avalanches. Direct sun and daytime warming loosens the bonds of the coarse granular melt-freeze crusts and human triggered slides will become predictable and probable in steep east to south to west facing terrain.
  • Sluff Management Techniques found here.

weather

Today will be a repeat of yesterday with light winds, sunny skies, and temperatures warming to the mid-30s at 10,000' and near 50° at 8000'. A weak wave will produce a trace to an inch of snow Thursday night into Friday. The weekend's storm now looks to be diving way south into Baja, leaving us with only a few inches of snow with the northern branch of the system.

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.