Avalanche Advisory
Advisory: Provo Area Mountains Issued by Drew Hardesty for Tuesday - January 26, 2016 - 7:20am
bottom line

Areas of CONSIDERABLE danger exist in the backcountry. Avoid the steep sunny aspects with daytime heating. These are unusual conditions and unusual avalanches occur during times like these. A great deal of uncertainty accompanies this forecast as the snowpack is as complex and tricky as I can recall from the last few years. What I do know is that with uncertainty, I step back from the edge and give a wide margin for error. I also know that most accidents and fatalities occur during Considerable danger. Backcountry Responsibility and Acceptable Risk - your gain, our loss. If you trigger a slide today, will it cross the road or hit others below?




special announcement

Lose or find something in the backcountry? Go to nolofo.com to place a gear lost or found notice.

There are still spaces in the Women’s Backcountry 101 avalanche class at Brighton (Feb 4/6) and the Women’s Snowbasin Avalanche Awareness class Feb (18/20). For more info on those classes and other education offerings through out the state, check out our Education Page.

Bruce has a Blog post about the Effectiveness of Airbags

current conditions

Skies are mostly clear. Temps have bottomed out in the single digits and mid-teens. Winds are north-northwesterly and less than 15mph except at the 11,000' level where they've picked up in the last hour or two and are blowing 25-30mph, gusting to 40. The clouds played cat and mouse with the sun yesterday and some southerly slopes will have a breakable crust this morning. Otherwise, riding conditions are 6 stars out of 5. Remember to look for some surface hoar feathers amongst the stellars this morning. You might see them as they're blowing over your head or over your hood in the cold smoke from yesterday morning.

recent activity

Activity in the Provo mountains included shallow loose and storm snow avalanches in steep terrain above Provo canyon. Activity might be more robust today. More info on the SLC activity, below.

You might say a fair amount of snow moved during the heavy snowfall and periods of strong northwesterly winds over the past two days. I'll categorize the highlights into an estimated timing for Sunday night and again Monday morning. Scroll through the photos here, or check the list here. It's all under Detailed Info in the Menu bar above. You should be able to find many of these locations on Steve Achelis's Wasatch Backcountry Skiing paper or digital map (available only on Safari browsers).

Sunday night:

  • Gobbler's Knob (into Mill A Basin) - 9700' SE-S: Natural that reportedly ran 1700' vertical, snapping 6-8" diameter aspens and extending the trim line on either side. This avalanche path sits just east of the Whitesnake avalanche from last Thursday's avalanche fatality and is the the same location of the Nov 12, 1995 avalanche fatality that tragically killed well known local skier/climber Steve Carruthers.
  • Mt Raymond (into Elbow Fork of BCC) - 9600' S-SW: estimated aspect/elevation and dimensions of 3' deep and 600' wide, running 1500'.
  • Upper Patsy Marley into Twin Lakes - 10,300' NE: unknown timing, trigger, and dimensions - perhaps 1-2' deep into old snow?

Monday morning:

  • Active naturalling of loose and storm snow avalanches a foot deep with the high precipitation intensity...which remained active with ski cuts and the usual active mitigation techniques. Many aspects at the mid and upper elevations.
  • West Monitor: natural repeater 10,100' NE broke out 18" deep and 125' wide.
  • Main Gobbler's: natural repeater 9700' NW looks to have pulled out 18" deep, perhaps 100' wide. This may have been Sunday night.
  • Stupid Chute/Old Reliable area in the back bowls of Brighton - 9800' N, reported 2.5' deep and 250' wide.
  • Ivory Flakes area - loose snow from above cascaded down and crowbarred this out to the ground 3-4' deep and 100' wide.

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

Poor structure exists in areas that have run their course once, if not twice since the Solstice avalanche cycle and these are primarily on mid and upper elevation northwest through north through southeast facing terrain. Many of them have reloaded and wait for a trigger. Poor structure also exists on some southerly facing terrain with a facet/crust combination buried 1-2.5' deep. With south facing slopes becoming active today with sun and warming, avalanches may be triggered immediately with human weight, or as a step-down from dry and then wet sluffs as the day wears on. Remember that it may be possible to collapse the slope and trigger the avalanche remotely. Or from below.

Avalanche Problem 2
type aspect/elevation characteristics
LIKELIHOOD
LIKELY
UNLIKELY
SIZE
LARGE
SMALL
TREND
INCREASING DANGER
SAME
DECREASING DANGER
over the next 10 hours
description

Today and tomorrow are the days for wet activity. Direct sun and mountain temperatures rising to the mid to upper 20s at 10,000' and the low to mid 30s at 8000' will dampen the dry new low density snow, resulting in natural and human triggered wet loose and wet slab avalanches. Like most things in life, timing is everything. You'll start to see pinwheels and sluffs at the outset - avoid this terrain during the heat of the day.

Avalanche Problem 3
type aspect/elevation characteristics
LIKELIHOOD
LIKELY
UNLIKELY
SIZE
LARGE
SMALL
TREND
INCREASING DANGER
SAME
DECREASING DANGER
over the next 24 hours
description

Moderate, gusty winds relegated to the highest ridgelines have loaded and crossloaded snow into sensitive wind drifts along the high lee. These should be soft, but sensitive and may also be triggered at a distance.

Longer running dry sluff avalanches will still be possible in the settling low density snow from overnight Sunday into early Monday. These are still likely on the steeper slopes at the mid and upper elevations.

weather

Sunny skies will prevail today and tomorrow with a few clouds expected through Thursday into early Friday. Mountain temps will warm into the mid to upper 20s at 10,000', the low to mid 30s at 8000'. Breezy northwest winds should be confined to the highest, exposed ridgelines. What looks to be a significant storm arrives later Friday into the weekend and beyond. The models are in rough agreement through the early part of the weekend, but diverge a bit on a solution for later Sunday into early next week. I hate to cry wolf, but if this storm system verifies, our avalanche forecasts may encourage people to hide under the bed and avoid the backcountry altogether.

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.