Avalanche Advisory
Advisory: Provo Area Mountains Issued by Drew Hardesty for Thursday - December 11, 2014 - 7:06am
bottom line

Most terrain has an overall LOW avalanche danger. Continue to follow safe backcountry protocol by only putting one person on a slope at a time. Anticipate pockety and shallow wind drifts in the alpine as well as minor wet and dry sluffing of the snow surface in the steeper terrain.




special announcement

Coming Soon! - The Utah Avalanche Center is planning to offer a few stand-alone Companion Rescue Workshops this winter. Each workshop will be roughly 3-3.5 hours long and will provide key beacon, probing, and shoveling strategies for companion rescue. In the last couple of years alone, we've seen upwards of 6 full burials and live recoveries executed by members of their own party.

current conditions

Current conditions? See below - a picture is worth a thousand words. (Forecasters hard at work in the backcountry).

Skies are partly cloudy, temps are in the mid 30s, winds are southerly, blowing 30mph with gusts to 40.

recent activity

None - a few wet and dry sluffs.

Avalanche Problem 1
type aspect/elevation characteristics
LIKELIHOOD
LIKELY
UNLIKELY
SIZE
LARGE
SMALL
TREND
INCREASING DANGER
SAME
DECREASING DANGER
over the next 24 hours
description

You'll likely encounter continued minor sluffing of both the wet and dry varieties today. In the high alpine, expect to see some very shallow pockets of wind drift bonded poorly to the weak surface snow that may crack out above you. These should pose little threat unless you're in unforgiving terrain.

Doing the homework before the storm, forecaster Brett Kobernik looks at the snow from Big Cottonwood to Mill Creek -

20141210 BCC to Mill Creek from Brett Kobernik on Vimeo.

weather

We'll see an increasing southerly flow and warming temps ahead of a storm marching inland from California. Valley temps should approach 70 degrees today with mountain temps in the mid-40s to low 50s. Winds along the high ridgelines will continue to be strong from the south, blowing 30-40mph. It looks like the storm will likely dump 3-5' of snow in the Sierras...split sharply over Nevada, and shower us with perhaps 4-7" on Saturday. Well, California's due - they've been dry for the past couple years.

Weak ridging follows for Sunday/Monday with another splitting storm for late Tuesday into Wednesday.

We'll update our Mountain Weather forecast by noon or so each day.

general announcements

Remember your information can save lives. If you see anything we should know about, please participate in the creation of our own community avalanche advisory by submitting snow and avalanche conditions. You can also call us at 801-524-5304, email by clicking HERE, or include #utavy in your tweet or Instagram.

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 and Park City – Alta Central (801-742-2033), Canyons Resort Dispatch (435-615-3322)

Snowbasin Resort Dispatch (801-620-1017), Powder Mountain Dispatch (801-745-3772 x 123).

Sundance Dispatch (801-223-4150)

EMAIL ADVISORY  If you would like to get the daily advisory by email you will need to subscribe here.​ 

DAWN PATROL Hotline updated daily by 5-530am - 888-999-4019 option 8.

Twitter Updates for your mobile phone - DETAILS

UDOT canyon closures:  LINK TO UDOT

Utah Avalanche Center mobile app - Get your advisory on your iPhone along with great navigation and rescue tools.

Wasatch Powderbird Guides Blog/Itinerary for the Day.  

Lost or Found something in the backcountry? - http://nolofo.com/

Ski Utah mobile snow updates

Discount lift tickets will soon be available at Backcountry.com - Thanks to Ski Utah and the Utah Resorts.  All proceeds go towards paying for Utah Avalanche Center avalanche and mountain weather advisories.

To those skinning uphill at resorts:  it is your responsibility to know the resort policy on uphill travel.  You can see the uphill travel policy for each resort here. IMPORTANT: Before skinning or hiking at a resort under new snow conditions, check in with Ski Patrol.  Resorts can restrict or cut off access if incompatible with control and grooming operations.

Benefit the Utah Avalanche Center when you shop from Backcountry.com or REI:  Click this link for Backcountry.com or this link to REI, shop, and they will donate a percent of your purchase price to the UAC.  Both offer free shipping (with some conditions) so this costs you nothing!

Benefit the Utah Avalanche Center when you buy or sell on ebay - set the Utah Avalanche Center as a favorite non-profit in your ebay account here and click on ebay gives when you buy or sell.  You can choose to have your seller fees donated to the UAC, which doesn't cost you a penny.

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 exist.