SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

More free avalanche awareness talks coming up: Friday Dec 9, 6 pm at White Pine Touring in Park City Tuesday, Dec 13, 7pm at the Sandy REI (possibly full?) And another one, The Canyons Inn Dec 15, 7-9pm.

For more upcoming events and more details, go to our Events listing from the main menu or our Classes-Workshops listing under Education from the main menu.

BOTTOM LINE

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

Danger Rose Tutorial

Most terrain has a low avalanche danger. Use caution when approaching steep upper elevation terrain in wind exposed locations. These are areas where lingering wind slabs may still be triggered. Trauma due to hitting rocks and trees is the biggest consequence. Remember, there is ALWAYS danger if you are in high elevation, steep, radical terrain.

CURRENT CONDITIONS

Under mostly cloudy skies, temperatures are in the upper teens to low 20s and winds are light from the northwest. The snow surface continues to become more loose due to the “near surface faceting” process. On slopes of at least 40 degrees, small harmless loose snow sluffs can be initiated which entrain these loose faceted grains at and below the snow surface. In general they don’t pack much of a punch, they’re quite slow and only run to the transition zone before stopping.

THREAT #1

WHERE

PROBABILITY

SIZE

TREND

Over the next 24 hours.

Normal caution should be applied while traveling in the backcountry today. While there is an abundance of weak snow on a wide variety of aspects and elevations, it is not posing much threat at the moment. What’s left of the current slab has basically gone limp and the most likely places you could get a slab to crack would be in the upper elevations where wind has deposited snow over the weak faceted grains. It seems like everything wants to stay in place right now but exercise normal caution especially in the higher, wind exposed terrain.

We are very concerned about the current weakening snowpack and potential future avalanche problems once storms start coming through. It seems almost certain that the current weak snow layering will cause an avalanche cycle eventually.

MOUNTAIN WEATHER

We’ll see mostly cloudy skies this morning with the chance for them breaking later today. Temperatures will be in the low 20s along the ridges and upper 20s at 8000 feet. Winds may increase in speed slightly with some moderate speed gusts and switch more to the north or north northeast. Weather models look bleak for any storms over at least the next 7 days.

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)

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.