Avalanche Advisory
Advisory: Provo Area Mountains Issued by Drew Hardesty for Tuesday - January 5, 2016 - 7:05am
bottom line

Areas of MODERATE danger exist in the backcountry for lingering wind drifts as well as for human triggered deep slab avalanches. The danger is most pronounced on mid and upper elevation west to north to easterly facing slopes above about 8500'. Excellent and safe soft settled powder may still be found in the wind sheltered northerly terrain below treeline on 30° slopes or less - and not connected to anything steeper above or adjacent to you.

Follow and model safe travel protocol - make a plan, expose only one person at a time in suspect terrain, and get out of the way at the bottom.




special announcement

TOMORROW – Join us at 7 pm for a showing of the award winning film Meru at Brewvies to benefit the Utah Avalanche Center. For details and advance purchase discount tickets, go here.

current conditions

Skies are mostly cloudy to overcast this morning in the wake of a trace to an inch that fell overnight. Ridgetop winds, mercifully, have veered from the south and southeast (good riddance) to the southwest and have dropped to a more reasonable 10-15mph. Yesterday's southeast winds seemed particularly ferocious along the southern end of the Park City ridgeline and the East of Eden valley on James Peak. Mountain temps are in upper 20s at the trailheads, the low 20s up high. Snow surface conditions run the gamut: alternating scoured-to-the-bone and hard, bullet-proof wind board in the alpine, breakable melt-freeze on some southerlies and lower elevation north, 6" of facets on grass and rocks in many avalanche paths. Now with lowered expectations, you'll be pleasantly surprised to find soft settled powder - as I did on Box Elder a couple days ago - on sheltered shady slopes in the trees. Of note, the Great Northwest Cirque looked like a wasteland...

Something else - one of our long time colleagues/observer Doug Wewer - I'd call him a modern day "Snowflake" Bentley - continues to take some phenomenal pictures of snowflakes, surface hoar, and the like.

recent activity

We heard of no new activity in the Ogden area mountains yesterday. One observer in the central Wasatch ran across a deep slab avalanche yesterday on the northeast side of Little Water peak yesterday. Little Water sits along the BCC/MCC ridgeline. Of unknown origin or timing, the "Firewater" avalanche - at 9400' - was reported as 3' deep and 250' wide. This may be a repeater. On 12/26 another observer, Patrick Fink, found this area to have naturalled during the pre-Christmas massacre. His report noted that "At the head of the bowl, the path has reloaded with a foot+ of wind load". Further loading from the dastardly southeast winds may have contributed to this possible 2nd release.

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

Human triggered Deep Slabs remain possible on west to north to easterly facing terrain at the mid and upper elevations and most pronounced on north to northeast facing slopes above about 8500'. Thinner snowpack areas in steep, rocky terrain - particularly along the Park City ridgeline, upper Mill Creek, the Uintas, and the Plateau - seem most suspect. At this stage of the game, immediate and obvious warning signs are typically absent, snow tests yield conflicting results, and we can go days without rumor of trouble in the basement. Ski cuts and other tracks on the slope are virtually meaningless. Typical triggers may include multiple snowmachines on a slope, a large cornice fall, another avalanche cascading down from above, or perhaps another significant weather event. General characteristics of Deep Slabs can be found below. For more info comparing and contrasting the 8 Avalanche Problems, check out our Avalanche Problem Toolbox.

Avalanche Problem 2
type aspect/elevation characteristics
LIKELIHOOD
LIKELY
UNLIKELY
SIZE
LARGE
SMALL
TREND
INCREASING DANGER
SAME
DECREASING DANGER
over the next 24 hours
description

While the wind event of the first couple days of the New Year scraped, scoured, eroded, and drifted a fair bit of snow, the sustained south to southeasterly winds (as noted above) from yesterday still give me pause. I'd consider wind slabs at this point to be disjointed and pockety, but still worth a mention for today. Remember that hard wind drifts are often triggered on the tapered end of the teardrop as you're well down the slope.

weather

We'll have mostly cloudy to overcast skies today ahead of a series of splitting and southward digging storms on the horizon. Perhaps a flake or two today. Today's temps will be in the mid-20s at 10,000', the mid-30s at 8000'. Southwest winds at 15-20mph. We may get enough spillover to accumulate 4-8" by later Thursday. The weather remains unsettled, although cooler, through the weekend.

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.

To get help in an emergency (to launch a rescue) in the Wasatch, call 911.  Be prepared to give your GPS coordinates or the run name. Dispatchers have a copy of the Wasatch Backcountry Ski map.

Backcountry Emergencies. It outlines your step-by-step method in the event of a winter backcountry incident.

If you trigger an avalanche in the backcountry, but no one is hurt and you do not need assistance, please notify the nearest ski area dispatch to avoid a needless response by rescue teams. Thanks.

Salt Lake and Park City – Alta Central (801-742-2033), Canyons Resort/PCMR Dispatch (435)615-1911

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.

Powderbird Helicopter Skiing - Blog/itinerary for the day

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

Ski Utah mobile snow updates

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.