Avalanche Advisory
Advisory: Provo Area Mountains Issued by Drew Hardesty for Tuesday - December 5, 2017 - 7:16am
bottom line

The danger is generally LOW in the Provo area mountains. Isolated and shallow wind drifts and loose snow sluffs may be found in the highest elevations.




special announcement

Don’t know what to buy your favorite skier for Christmas? Discount lift tickets for Alta, Snowbird, Brighton, Solitude, Deer Valley, Snowbasin,and Beaver Mountain are now available, donated by the resorts to benefit the Utah Avalanche Center. Details and order information here. These make a great holiday gift and all proceeds go towards paying for avalanche forecasting and education!
current conditions

Skies are clear, winds are light, and temps are in the teens. The Sunday/Monday storm brought plenty of wind, but only 2-4" of snow. I went above Aspen Grove to the Emerald Lake hut on Friday and you can see what I found here.

recent activity

There has been no reported avalanche activity in the Provo 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

The danger is generally Low in the Provo mountains. Some minor sluffing and pockety wind drifts may be found in the highest elevations. Any issues really will be a function of the terrain that you're in. Even a small sluff can be problematic in steep mountain terrain.
weather

Be grateful for this last storm, but we knew this was coming. A developing ridge of high pressure will begin to strangle the west coast and much of the intermountain west. We may not see a storm between now and Christmas. I hope I'm wrong. For now, we'll have mostly sunny skies, light northerly winds, and temperatures in the mountains rising toward freezing by the end of the week. The northerly winds may bump into the 20-25mph range Wednesday night with a storm passing to the northeast, but that's the handwriting on the wall. The bad news is that snow in the valley will only worsen the approaching inversion.
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.

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DAWN PATROL Hotline updated daily by 5-530am - 888-999-4019 option 8.

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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

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.

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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.