Avalanche Advisory
Advisory: Provo Area Mountains Issued by Drew Hardesty for Monday - November 20, 2017 - 7:17am
bottom line

The danger is MODERATE for human triggered slides in steep wind drifted terrain. The winds may be enough - along with your weight - to overload the old weak snow, creating the potential for them to be triggered from adjacent slopes or below.

The best news is that the best and safest riding conditions exist on low angle north facing grassy slopes not connected to steeper terrain.

We'll update this advisory on Thanksgiving morning.




special announcement

The below (or link here) reviews what's going on with our snowpack and our current avalanche concerns. It includes old snow coverage in the Provo area mountains. Special thanks to Steve Lloyd for this project.

If you are heading north, remember unopened ski area terrain has a backcountry snowpack, as avalanche mitigation work has not been done. Each resort has different uphill travel policies - please abide by signage and closures and check in with the local ski patrol.

Snowbird and Alta are closed to uphill traffic. While the Albion summer road is open, Alta will be doing mitigation in the Supreme area and East Castle to protect lift construction.

current conditions

Skies are mostly cloudy with temps already in the upper 30s to low 40s. West to southwest winds - accompanying a weak storm to the north - are blowing 20-30mph with gusts to near 40. Storm totals from Friday are 6" or less with perhaps 12" (more where drifted) in the high elevations.

recent activity

No avalanche activity was reported in the Provo mountains, but reports of large avalanches came in from Friday and Saturday from the upper elevations of the Cottonwood Canyons in the central Wasatch.

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

Before the storm in the Provo area mountains, there was weak sugary snow only on upper elevation slopes facing northwest thorough easterly. Friday’s new snow at the upper elevations may be just enough to put a slab on this weak layer, that could be triggered by a person, especially on a wind drifted slope. With facets as a weak layer, you can trigger slides from a distance or from below.

The “whiter” and more “filled in” a slope looks, the more likely it is to have the dangerous weak old snow beneath the new. Typical of early season, there is a lot of variability in the snow over short distances, so tracks or a snow pit on one slope may not represent the stability 50 or 100 feet away.

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

Increasing westerly winds should put active and sensitive wind drifts on the radar. These drifts will be more pronounced on steep slopes with an easterly component, but terrain channeling may allow for drifts to be found on many possible aspects. Be particularly alert for drifts to the lee of ridgelines and cross-loaded in couloirs and gullies.

weather

We'll be under overcast skies with warm temps and gusty west to northwest winds to the tune of 25-35mph. Ridgetop temps push to the mid-40s by Thursday. Despite a few weak "storms" here and there, the longer range models look a bit bleak at the moment.

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 occur.