Avalanche Advisory
Advisory: Ogden Area Mountains Issued by Drew Hardesty for Tuesday - December 5, 2017 - 7:12am
bottom line

Areas of MODERATE danger exist in steep, mid to upper elevation terrain. The danger is most pronounced on wind drifted slopes facing north to east, generally above 9000'. Expect to note or initiate some point-release sluffs in the recent low density snow on slopes approaching 40° and steeper. As always, make a plan, go one at a time, and get out of the way at the bottom.

Hot Tip! The best conditions will also be the safest: lower angle non-drifted terrain will be 5 star with the cold smoke on the underlying crusts.




special announcement

Looking for a great stocking stuffer for Christmas? Discount lift tickets for Alta, Snowbird, Brighton, Solitude, Deer Valley, Snowbasin,and Beaver Mountain are now available, donated by the resorts to benefit the Utah Avalanche Center. Details and order information here. These make a great holiday gift and all proceeds go towards paying for avalanche forecasting and education!

There are still spots left for the FREE Avalanche Awareness for Women evening talk TONIGHT, December 5th, presented by the SLC REI, SheJumps and the Utah Avalanche Center. Sign up for free with REI HERE.

Please abide by the uphill travel policies of the ski resorts. Info here.
current conditions

Skies are clear under a waning super moon.

Winds are northerly, blowing 5-10mph, gusting to 15.

Temps are in the single digits and mid-teens.

Storm totals are reportedly 8-14", with up to 6" at the trailheads...and this has greatly improved the skiing and riding conditions. Kory Davis has an excellent report from Monte Cristo from the past two days.

12/4/2017 Observation: Monte Cristo Ogden region

12/3/2017 Observation: Monte Cristo Ogden region

recent activity

One experienced backcountry skier managed to find and intentionally trigger a couple fresh wind slabs 4-8" deep and 40' wide well below the Ogden skyline. One slab broke at his skis; another one was triggered from a distance.

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

The snow is mostly stable but for pockets of lingering wind slab and fast moving sluffs in the low density snow. While weak snow exists in the mid-pack, not enough snow and wind arrived to activate these persistent weaknesses.

weather

Be grateful for this last storm, but we knew this was coming. A developing ridge of high pressure will begin to strangle the west coast and much of the intermountain west. We may not see a storm between now and Christmas. I hope I'm wrong. For now, we'll have mostly sunny skies, light northerly winds, and temperatures in the mountains rising toward freezing by the end of the week. The northerly winds may bump into the 20-25mph range Wednesday night with a storm passing to the northeast, but that's the handwriting on the wall. The bad news is that snow in the valley will only worsen the approaching inversion.

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 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

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.

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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 occur.