Avalanche Advisory
Advisory: Provo Area Mountains Issued by Mark Staples for Thursday - January 5, 2017 - 7:43am
bottom line

Today with an Avalanche Warning in effect, the avalanche danger is HIGH at upper elevations and CONSIDERABLE at mid elevations due to wind slabs, storm slabs and persistent slab avalanche problems. So much new snow from this storm and one early this week has created dangerous avalanche conditions.
avalanche warning

THE FOREST SERVICE UTAH AVALANCHE CENTER IN SALT LAKE CITY HAS CONTINUED A BACKCOUNTRY AVALANCHE WARNING.

* TIMING...IN EFFECT FROM 6 AM MST THIS MORNING TO 6 AM MST FRIDAY

* AFFECTED AREA...FOR THE MOUNTAINS OF NORTHERN UTAH INCLUDING THE WASATCH RANGE...BEAR RIVER RANGE AND THE WESTERN UINTA MOUNTAINS.

* AVALANCHE DANGER...THE AVALANCHE DANGER FOR THE WARNING AREA IS HIGH.

* REASON/IMPACTS...HEAVY SNOW HAS CREATED WIDESPREAD AREAS OF UNSTABLE SNOW. BOTH HUMAN TRIGGERED AND NATURAL AVALANCHES ARE LIKELY OR OCCURRING. STAY OFF OF AND OUT FROM UNDER SLOPES STEEPER THAN 30 DEGREES.

THIS WARNING DOES NOT APPLY TO SKI AREAS WHERE AVALANCHE HAZARD REDUCTION MEASURES ARE PERFORMED.
special announcement

Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) has issued several closures in the Provo area this morning:

Provo Canyon Backcountry Closure:

Slide Canyon - Lost Creek

Thursday, January 5, 2017 - 6:00am to 11:00am

Provo Canyon Road Closure:

Provo Canyon HWY 189 - Canyon Glen to Vivian Park

Thursday, January 5, 2017 - 9:00am to 11:00am

Please follow them on twitter and Instagram for the latest updates. You can also click the HERE for more details.

current conditions

Temperatures have dropped into the mid teens to low 20's F this morning. Westerly winds are blowing 5-15 mph with gusts of 25 mph.

This storm started early yesterday morning and is ending this morning. It started warm with lots of graupel and finished cold with some light snow; therefore, its hard to say exactly how much snow fell. Most areas received at least 1.5 inches of snow water equivalent and 10 inche of snow while near Sundance ski area, 28 inches of snow fell containing 4.3 inches of snow water equivalent!! That is a massive load and a major red flag by itself.

Video of Craig Gordon explaining why this storm increased the avalanche danger.

recent activity

With such stormy weather yesterday, few people were able to see much terrain and spot recent avalanches. Road cuts did produce small avalanches. When this happens, it's always a good bet that much bigger avalanches happened in the backcountry. I suspect there were some very large avalanches that occurred last night on Timpanogos and Cascade mountains.
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

Strong westerly winds blew yesterday during the storm. Even though I think the peak instability occurred last night, I'm being conservative today with the danger rating simply based on the amount of new snow from this storm coupled with the storm from Monday/Tuesday.
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

Monday/Tuesday's storm was cold and produced light snow which is now capped by dense snow from this storm. Dense, cohesive snow on top of light snow is always a good recipe for avalanches. This layering may not be very obvious today because yesterdays dense snow will become more supportable today. Additionally, snow early this morning will be light and will hide this upside down layering (dense snow on top of light snow). The good news is that this type of instability can heal itself fairly quickly.
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

Buried faceted layers of snow concern me and could be a longer lasting problem. With so much snow from yesterday/last night and early this week, these layers will be stressed today. One layer should be buried 2-3 feet deep under the snow that fell just after New Years. The other layer maybe in the middle of the snowpack or deeper near an ice crust from mid December. It is worth looking for these layers no matter where you are. If you find them, give them a few days at least to adjust to the weight of the new snow. For now I don't trust them.
weather

With cold air descending from the north, today shouldn't warm at all, and temperatures may even continue to drop a few more degrees. The good news is that winds should steadily decrease through the day and the sun may break through cloudy skies by afternoon.

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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.