Join us for the Backcountry 101 Avalanche class on February 26 and 28. We'll do an evening lecture and a field day learning the basics about safe travel techniques, the magic of snow, rescue, and decision making in complicated conditions. In mid March, SheJumps will team up with the Friends for one final Backcountry 101 for women - details to come.

There are just a few lift tickets left - to Sundance, Wolf Mountain and the Canyons ski resorts – 100% of the sale of these donated tickets goes to support the Utah Avalanche Center.

The avalanche danger is MODERATE (Level 2) on any steep, slope with wind drifted snow, which will be most widespread along the higher ridgelines, on slopes facing northwest through northeast. Pockets of CONSIDERABLE (Level 3) danger exist on the most wind drifted slopes. These same wind drifted slopes have a MODERATE (Level 2) danger of triggering a larger, deeper slide, breaking out on a faceted weak layer. Once again, the avalanche danger is generally LOW on wind sheltered terrain.

Overnight the flow has shifted to the south southeast, and the temperatures and winds have increased. Speeds across the higher peaks have been averaging 35 to 45 mph, with gusts to 60. Mid elevation terrain has more reasonable wind gusts mostly in the 20s and 30s. Temperatures are now in the teens at 10,000’ and the low to mid 20’s at 8,000’. Wednesday night’s snow vastly improved the turning, riding and snowshoeing conditions, though you’ll still hit the underlying crusts on some slopes. Today, search out wind sheltered slopes.

Loose sluffs running ½ to full track were the only activity reported from the backcountry yesterday, with crusts acting as a bed surface. Explosive control work at the resorts released new snow slides, class 1’s and a few class 2’s – large enough to bury a person. In the shallower snowpack of the Ogden mountains, control work slides took out 4 to 8” of older snow to run on the January rain crust.

Northern Utah will be under a southerly flow through the weekend, with mostly cloudy skies and periods of light snow. Today, skies will be partly to mostly cloudy and temperatures will warm into the low 30’s at 8,000’ and to near 20 at 10,000’. The southeasterly winds will remain brisk across the high elevation terrain, averaging 30 to 40 mph, with gusts in the 50’s to 60’s at times. Mid elevation terrain will average less than 20 mph, with gusts to 30. The main energy of the Pacific trough moving inland this weekend will be to the south of us, but the northern mountains will get periods of snow, with the best chance for accumulations Saturday night into Sunday. The mid week storm continues to look more organized, and more favorable for snow in the northern mountains.

If you trigger an avalanche in the backcountry - especially if you are adjacent to a ski area – please call the following teams to alert them to the slide and whether anyone is missing or not. Rescue teams can be exposed to significant hazard when responding to avalanches, and do not want to do so when unneeded. Thanks.

Salt Lake – Alta Central (801-742-2033)

Ogden – Snowbasin Patrol Dispatch (801-620-1017)

Provo – Sundance Patrol Dispatch (801-223-4150)

Discount Lift tickets: Ski Utah, Backcountry.com, Alta, Deer Valley, Park City, The Canyons, Wolf Mountain, Snowbasin, Beaver Mountain, Brighton, Sundance, and Solitude have donated a limited number of tickets for sale.

Wasatch Powderbird Guides flight plan.

Dawn Patrol Forecast Hotline, updated by 05:30: 888-999-4019 option 8.

Daily observations are frequently posted by 10 pm each evening.

Subscribe to the daily avalanche advisory e-mail click HERE.

UDOT canyon closures UDOT at (801) 975-4838

You have the opportunity to participate in the creation of our own community avalanche advisory by submitting avalanche and snow observations. You can also call us at 801-524-5304 or 800-662-4140, or email by clicking HERE

Donate to your favorite non-profit – The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center. The UAC depends on contributions from users like you to support our work.

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 forecast tomorrow morning. Thanks for calling.