Provo Avalanche Advisory

Forecaster: Bruce Tremper

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

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BOTTOM LINE

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


Danger Rose Tutorial

Today the avalanche danger is mostly Low (Level 1) but with pockets of Moderate (Level 2) danger for one of four different types of avalanche dragons 1) wind slabs, 2) wet avalanches, 3) deep slabs and 4) large cornices.


CURRENT CONDITIONS

This is the time of year where people start being more interested in the the 3 G's than the 3 S's--Groomers, gardening and golf instead of snowmobiling, skiing and snowboarding. But those lucky enough to get out yesterday had a spectacular, warm, sunny day where you could revel in the great gift of just being alive in a specacular place with specacular weather. You almost did not mind the poor and extremely variable snow conditions--sun crusts, a wide variety of mush, punchy wind slabs and sastrugi. But If you found the right spot, it was actually quite good.

Overnight, winds have come up to around 25 mph from the southwest. Clouds overnight kept temperatures warm and they are right around freezing this morning and we're expecting mosly cloudy with light snow showers today.


RECENT ACTIVITY

In the Salt Lake area mountains, there was a couple human triggered avalanches. A skier intentionally triggered a fresh wind slab on Tuscarora Peak (on Seagull) 1' x 70', which ran down quite a ways and he found a smaller wind slab partway down. This was from the strong winds a couple nights ago.

A skier triggered a sizeable wet sluff on the southeast aspect of Superior at 11 am, which also ran down fairly far.

FYI, some large slabs occurred in the Logan area mountains yesterday and you should check out their advisory or the Current Conditions for those.


THREAT #1

WHERE PROBABILITY SIZE TREND
      Over the next 12 hours.

We should be building a new round of fresh wind slabs today with 1-3 inches of new snow combined with wind, which should begin mid day and continue through afternoon. These will be mostly shallow and soft. As always, avoid steep slopes with recent wind deposits, which will look smooth and rounded and often feel hollow or punchy.

Note: the cornices are huge and sensitive these day and they are breaking farther back than normal. As always, never walk up to the edge of a dropoff and travel well on the upwind sides of ridges.


THREAT #2

WHERE PROBABILITY SIZE TREND
      Over the next 8 hours.

Because of the cloud cover overnight, temperatures are still near freezing this morning and not nearly as cold as yesterday morning. So even though we will have mostly cloudy skies today with cooling this afternoon, we still need to think about wet avalanches today.


THREAT #3

WHERE PROBABILITY SIZE TREND
      Over the next 24 hours.

Several big, deep slabs have occurred in the Logan area mountains over the past few days including yesterday. These are most likely deep, dry slabs triggered by heating. I suspect there may be places in the Wasatch Range where these can occur as well. They are low probability but with high consequences and it's always hard for the human brain to grasp these "black swans", rare, impossible to forecast but with huge consequences.


MOUNTAIN WEATHER

We should have mostly cloudy skies with light snow showers starting around mid day. We should get 1-3 inches of snow--mostly in spring squalls. Temperatures are near freezing this morning but they should drop into the teens tonight with the arrival of the colder air. Winds should pick up to 30 mph with higher gusts as the squalls pass and winds should turn from southest to northwest throughout the day.

We should have a rest day on Tuesday with a stronger impulse arriving Wednesday and Thursday, which should give us about a foot of snow.


GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

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.


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.