Avalanche Advisory
Advisory: Provo Area Mountains Issued by Evelyn Lees for Tuesday - January 3, 2017 - 7:05am
bottom line

The avalanche danger is CONSIDERABLE on all steep mid and upper elevation slopes, where soft slabs, wind drifts and large sluffs can be easily triggered. Natural avalanches are possible at the upper elevations where the wind in blowing and drifting the snow. Avalanches can be triggered remotely today.

Anyone heading into the backcountry needs good snowpack and terrain evaluation skills and conservative decision-making. Measure your slope angles and stay off of and out from under steep slopes, especially those getting wind drifted.
special announcement

The Salt Lake City premier of The Fourth Phase from the creators of The Art of Flight will at Brewvies at 7 pm on Monday, Jan 9 as a fundraiser for the Utah Avalanche Center. For tickets and details, go to https://utahavalanchecenter.org/event/fourth-phase

Brighton has amended their uphill travel plan. You can find it here - http://www.brightonresort.com/mountain/ski-patrol/brighton-resort-uphill-travel-plan/
current conditions

This storm is quite the overachiever – The Provo area mountains have a 10 to 22” storm total. It’s light powder, containing less than 1.5” of water weight. Skies are overcast in the Provo area mountains, temperatures teens, and the westerly winds are averaging 10 to 15 mph. High peaks to the north where there are weather stations have 15 to 25 mph averages, with peak gusts in the 50s overnight.

In the Park City and Salt Lake area mountains storm totals are now in the 18 to 36” range. The Ogden area mountains received no snow overnight, and have a 6 to 10” storm total.

recent activity

Amid widespread sluffing and soft slabs, two avalanches stand out from yesterday, perhaps precursors of what’s to come.

  • In No Name, on the Park City ridgeline, a skier remotely triggered a soft slab, taking out the earlier tracks. Easterly facing, 9800’.
  • In upper Big Cottonwood, a skier moving onto soft debris from a first avalanche triggered a second slide, breaking deeper into old snow in a very shallow snowpack area, north facing above 10,000’.
  • There was a mini natural avalanche cycle yesterday afternoon in upper Little Cottonwood canyon, new snow soft slabs large enough to bury a person.
  • Lots of easily triggered, long running sluffs.

Mark White photos of No Name slide.
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

There is a lot of new snow out there, so expect to trigger long running sluffs packing a punch and soft new snow slab avalanches today if you get onto steep terrain. These slides will run fast and far, entraining snow as they move down slope.

The snow will be especially sensitive on mid and upper elevation shady slopes – there, the new snow is sitting on a layer of weak faceted snow. On these slopes, slides can be triggered remotely from a distance, you may trigger a slide mid slope, with snow releasing above you or the second or third person may trigger the slide.

Check out this short little video from yesterday showing the poor bonding of the new snow to the faceted snow. Today, this weak snow is now buried 1 to 3 feet deep in places.
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

With acres of snow available for transport and upper elevation wind speeds fast enough to drift the snow, sensitive wind slabs will be found in the higher terrain. Anywhere, anytime the wind speeds increase, natural avalanches will be possible, and human triggered slides certain on wind-drifted slopes. So avoid travel on and below wind-drifted slopes. The drifts will be most widespread at the upper elevations, but evaluate mid elevation terrain carefully, too, for any signs of wind drifting.
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

The snowpack has a variety of buried facets and crusts on mid and upper elevation slopes of all aspects, with the newest layer of facets just buried yesterday. A smaller new snow slide might be able to trigger a deeper slide in the snowpack, especially in a shallower snowpack area. Be especially wary of slopes that have slid one or more times this year, drainages with less snow, and wind scoured areas.
weather

Skies will be mostly cloudy today, with a final 1 to 3” of snow possible this morning. Temperatures will warm into the low 20s at 8,000’, and mid-teens at 10,000’. The southwesterly winds will be light below about 10,000’, averaging 10 to 15 mph. Across the higher terrain, wind speeds could increase to 25 to 35 mph with gusts in the 40s and 50s.

The next storm will arrive by tomorrow morning, lasting into Thursday morning, with increasing temperatures, wind and heavy dense snow.
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.