BOTTOM LINE

Danger by aspect and elevation on slopes approaching 35° or steeper.
(click HERE for tomorrow's danger rating)

Danger Rose Tutorial

The danger will again rise to CONSIDERABLE with daytime heating on all sun exposed slopes. Natural and human triggered sluffs will be likely by mid-morning on the easterly aspects, midday on the southerlies, and early afternoon on the southwest and westerly aspects. The high sun and warm ambient temps will allow the mid and low elevation northerly aspects to get into the game as well. Early outings are required for spring.

CURRENT CONDITIONS

High pressure will put a stranglehold over the intermountain west from now until the end of the work-week. Skies are mostly clear and winds will be generally light from the north, if not light and variable. Temps should drop to below freezing tonight (Saturday night) but that may be the last of the sub-freezing free air temps for the week. We'll look to have a corn cycle developing in the next few days. Cold dry snow is relegated to the steep northerly terrain above about 10,000'.

RECENT ACTIVITY

Continued wet sluffing with some sizeable debris piles. Field report from Saturday.

THREAT #1

WHERE

PROBABILITY

SIZE

TREND

Over the next 24 hours.

Heating will be the only game in town and instigate not one, but three avalanche problems. Wet sluffing and wet slabs are likely players over the course of the week and will be joined by increasingly sensitive cornices and glide releases in the usual terrain. Early starts are required in the sunny terrain. Change aspect, slope angle, or elevation if you see the tell-tale signs of wet instability - pinwheels and rollerballs, natural sluffing, and unsupportable glop.

Be especially mindful of thin and/or superficial refreezes over insulated unsupporable melt freeze grains with free water - it's at best a wolf in sheep's clothing. The window for travel will be shortened, and the potential for what we call "corn slabs" will be on the rise. It'll feel like you're on supportable melt freeze crust, but will have the mechanics of a hard-slab. You may collapse the crust and have it propogate above, adjacent or below you. Audible collapsing will be part of the clue, and digging down to look for wet sloppy grains beneath the crust is another.

MOUNTAIN WEATHER

High and dry through the end of the next work week. Looks like a good cold storm is possible for Friday. Still a long way off, though. Winds will be light and variable under gradually warming temps. expect 10k temps to rise to 50+ F by mid-week.

GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

We will be issuing intermittent avalanche advisories for the rest of the season. We will likely issue advisories each afternoon this week through the storm cycle, and then go back to more intermittent advisories as the avalanche conditions stabilize.

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We appreciate any and all late season avalanche and snow observations, so keep them coming!! Please leave us 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.

We will update this advisory as conditions warrant.

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.

This advisory provided by the USDA Forest Service, in partnership with:

The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center, Utah Division of State Parks and Recreation, Utah Division of Emergency Management, Salt Lake County, Salt Lake Unified Fire Authority and the friends of the La Sal Avalanche Center. See our Sponsors Page for a complete list.