Avalanche Advisory
Advisory: Provo Area Mountains Issued by Greg Gagne for Friday - February 26, 2016 - 6:45am
bottom line

The avalanche danger is LOW this morning, and may rise to MODERATE on steeper solar aspects during the afternoon where wet, loose sluffs are possible.

In upper elevation extreme terrain you may find very manageable minor wind pockets and dry, loose sluffs.




special announcement

The Utah Avalanche Center greatly values in longtime partnership with our world-class resorts and is blowing out the remaining donated lift tickets from Alta, Snowbird, Snowbasin, Sundance, and Nordic Valley with reduced prices. Every penny you spend and turn you make benefits the Utah Avalanche Center.

Check out our Garage Sale! Chock full of sweet backcountry gear - you can find the goods on our Facebook page here.

current conditions

Skies are clear this morning and temperatures are in the upper twenties and low thirties in the Provo mountains with light westerly winds. Although solar aspects are mostly crusted, upper elevation north aspects still hold soft, dry, recrystallized snow with some thin wind-skins reported. This past week has provided superb conditions for tours in the high alpine, and today should provide yet another repeat performance.

* KBYG.org Watch the video, you'll get it.

recent activity

The only activity reported from Thursday were some minor wet sluffs on south and west aspects that occurred later in the day. [Photo from Mark White.]

We also received a report of an avalanche that likely occurred sometime during the day on Monday in Broads Fork in Big Cottonwood Canyon. This was likely a repeater slope, and is a good reminder avalanches remain possible even during periods of relative stability. DETAILS.

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

The gradual warming this past week has allowed the sunny aspects to slowly stabilize, so I am not expecting any widespread wet activity. However temperatures are expected to be warm even more today, and combined with a strong sun, human triggered wet sluffs are possible on steeper sunlit aspects when the snow surface becomes wet and unsupportable. Any wet slide activity you encounter is likely to be shallow, but consider the consequences if you are traveling in steep, unforgiving terrain.

There are reports that there has been a significant loss of snow on southerly aspects in the Provo mountains over this past dry spell.

Remember, risk is always inherent in mountain travel. Even with a Low Danger, avalanches can still happen in isolated places.

weather

For weather, today you can warm, dry, and sunny conditions with light W/SW winds and temperatures rising into the mid to upper 40's at 8000' and just above freezing at 10000'. Winds are expected to increase overnight with a quick-hitting cold front for mid-day Saturday that may being an inch or two of snow Saturday afternoon. There remains a hint of hope for a somewhat stronger system early this coming week. Unfortunately there does not appear to be any signs of a return to a stormy pattern for the next 7-10 days.

general announcements

Remember your information can save lives. If you see anything we should know about, please help us out 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 request 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.

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 critical to know the resort policy on uphill travel.  You can see the uphill travel policy for each resort here

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.