The avalanche danger is MODERATE in areas with recent deposits of wind drifted snow. The most likely aspects to find these are easterly facing but always watch for crossloaded terrain features on all aspects. They will be most pronounced along the ridges. The avalanche danger will be on the rise but probably won’t spike until this evening when the snow starts to pile up again.

A bit of “greenhousing” occurred on Wednesday making the snow damp in many locations affecting all aspects up to around 9000 feet depending on location. Temperatures this morning are in the upper teens to low 20s. Westerly winds cranked up again, more pronounced along the highest locations with gusts in the 40s overnight but slowing again over the last few hours. Mid elevation ridges look only slightly windy with gusts in the 25 to 35 mph range.

Early Wednesday winds drifted snow and continued to build cornices which were breaking off naturally. There was some evidence of some shallow natural slab avalanches as well as some loose snow avalanching from during the storm. Stormy conditions Wednesday morning kept many people out of the higher terrain. There were two skier triggered avalanches reported from Butler Fork that were around 10 inches deep and 80 feet wide. No one was caught. They were west facing at about 8400 feet on quite steep slope. Debris piled up 6 to 8 feet deep in what’s known as “Scary Gully”, aptly named. Following the recent pattern of the instability being relegated to the height of the storms, most people found the snow to stabilize nicely in the afternoon.

We’ll have increasing clouds and slightly windy conditions today ahead of another decent looking snow storm. Temperatures at 8000 feet will max out at about 30 and will be in the mid 20s along the ridges. We’ll have periods of gusty westerly winds with speeds in the 40 to 60 mph range along the most exposed locations and gusting in the 15 to 25 mph range along the mid elevation ridges. Snow flurries may start this afternoon with the most accumulation overnight and about a foot of snow expected. Snow tapers off Friday afternoon with another chance for snow into Saturday at the tail end of the trof.

Wasatch Powderbird Guides didn’t get out on Wednesday and won’t be out today. Check their operations planning page is here.

Our web site is now formatted for iPhone. You can also download a free iPhone application from Canyon Sports to display the Bottom Line. Search for Utah Avalanche on the Apple's iPhone Apps page or in iTunes.

Beacon training parks are up and running! There is one at Snowbasin, one on the Park City side at the top of Canyon’s gondola toward the Tombstone lift, one in Little Cottonwood near the Snowbird parking structure on the bypass road, and in Big Cottonwood a training park is at the west end of Solitude's lower parking lot.

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UDOT highway avalanche control work info can be found by calling (801) 975-4838. Our statewide toll free line is 1-888-999-4019 (early morning, option 8).

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Your snow and avalanche observations can save someone’s life. Please let us know what you're seeing by leaving a message at (801) 524-5304 or 1-800-662-4140, or email us at uac@utahavalanchecenter.org. (Fax 801-524-6301).

The information in this advisory is from the U.S. Forest Service, which is solely responsible for its content. This advisory describes general avalanche conditions and local variations always occur.

Evelyn Lees will update this advisory by 7:30 tomorrow morning.