Avalanche Advisory
Advisory: Provo Area Mountains Issued by Drew Hardesty for Tuesday - March 10, 2015 - 6:22am
bottom line

It's mostly LOW danger today with pockets of MODERATE for lingering persistent slabs on primarily steep, thin, rocky terrain on northwest through east facing slopes. If you've over-stayed your welcome in the steep sun-exposed terrain, you'll find yourself in the thick of a MODERATE danger for wet sluffs in the heat of the day.




special announcement

The Backcountry Film Festival is coming to Park City tomorrow/Wednesday March 11 at 7pm. The screening will be held at the Prospector Square Theater as a fundraising event for Wasatch Backcountry Alliance and the Utah Avalanche Center. Details & tickets here.

Come check out a slideshow with Petzl Team alpinist Colin Haley at Petzl HQ (2929 Decker Lake Drive) next Tuesday March 17th 7pm about his recent climbing expedition to Patagonia. “The focus will be on this season in Patagonia, which has certainly been my most successful climbing trip ever,” Colin writes. Epic! For more information and tickets, click here. This should be an amazing event - Colin's one of the best climbers of the day - and all proceeds support the Utah Avalanche Center.

current conditions

The bluebird's been singing a bit too much for my taste this winter. At least the corn harvest is on. Good supportable corn skiing and riding now exists on the steep southerly aspects; patches of soft recrystallized powder remain in the upper elevation northerly terrain. Temps are in the mid to upper 20s; winds are northwesterly and less than 15mph.

recent activity

Guilt.

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

Most areas have stable snow and most slopes are getting tracked without incident. To be sure, the mid-Feb facets have well adjusted to their load and there has been little sign of collapsing or cracking into this layering for a few days. The last slide triggered on this layer was two days ago in the Bountiful Sessions area with the previous slides three days prior to that. Snow tests are demonstrating this trend as well. (See Greg Gagne's excellent report here.)

Avalanche Problem 2
type aspect/elevation characteristics
LIKELIHOOD
LIKELY
UNLIKELY
SIZE
LARGE
SMALL
TREND
INCREASING DANGER
SAME
DECREASING DANGER
over the next 12 hours
description

Likewise, most of the wet activity has significantly calmed down since the very warm day on Friday. But it's still possible to get wet sluffs going on the steep, sun exposed slopes, especially around rocks that heat up in the sun. Don't let one of these sluffs catch you in high consequence terrain. Get off of, and out from underneath, steep, sun exposed slopes when they get wet from sun heating.

weather

We'll have sunny skies and mountain temps soaring into - at a minimum - the upper 30s at 10,000' and the mid to upper 40s at 8000'. Winds will be west to northwesterly and less than 10mph. A weak disturbance moves through late Wednesday into Thursday, accompanied by cooler temps and perhaps a couple inches of snow for the Logan area mountains and the western Uintas. High pressure returns with a vengeance for the weekend as temps are forecasted to reach into the upper 40s at 10,000' on Sunday. Valley temps to reach 70* by then.

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, or on Twitter, follow @UDOTavy, @CanyonAlerts or @AltaCentral

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 are now 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.