The Avalanche Warning has been continued for the Wasatch, Bear River and western Uinta ranges. The combination of strong winds and snow has overloaded preexisting buried weak layers in the snowpack. Large, dangerous human triggered avalanches are likely. Travel in backcountry avalanche terrain is not recommended.

Bottom Line for the Salt Lake, Park City and Provo area mountains:

All you can do is back off. The avalanche danger is HIGH on and below mid and upper elevation slopes, especially those facing west through north through east and southeast, where human triggered avalanche are likely on slopes of about 30 degrees and steeper, above about 8,000'. Slides can be triggered remotely from a distance, so avoid travel adjacent to and below steep avalanche paths.

Travel in avalanche terrain is not recommended. Only people with extensive skill, experience and local knowledge should travel in the backcountry, and travel should be on gentle slopes and ridge lines well away from avalanche paths.

Under cloudy skies, temperatures are in the single digits to just below zero. Storm snow totals are in the 4 to 9” range. The winds are the bigger story – pre frontal winds raged from the southwest, 25 to 35, with gusts in the 60's and 70's. Even after frontal passage, winds remained brisk, and are still in the 15 to 25 mph range from the northwest, with the highest peaks gusting into the 40's and 50's. The wind chill calculations are coming in at -25 degrees.

With some limited visibility yesterday morning, numerous natural avalanches were spotted, mainly along the Park City ridge line. Square Top, the main bowl of Scott's Hill, closed areas of Jupiter Peak, and High Dutch (at 10 am) all ran, averaging 1 to 3 feet deep, 100 to 600' wide. The most widespread activity was on slopes from 8,500' to 10,000', east to northeasterly facing, and most slides involved the crust. There was also a short run in Little Pine, a south facing path in LCC. Avalanche control work at the resorts released some far running 2 to 4' deep hard slabs. New snow soft and hard wind drifts were very sensitive, cracking on test slopes. One new snow slab released with a ski cut stepped down to the ground beneath a cliff band.

A moist and moderately strong west northwest flow will remain over northern Utah this morning, producing mostly cloudy skies and light snow. The northwesterly winds will remain brisk, in the 15 to 25 mph range, with gusts in the 30's. Across the highest peaks, add another 10 mph for the averages, and 20 mph for the gusts. With temperatures stuck in the single digits, windy areas will be frostbite territory. Partly cloudy skies tonight, with decreasing winds, and temperatures near zero again. A weak ridge will move in tonight through Sunday ahead of the next storm system, which is due Monday. Of interest, temperatures will rapidly warm into the 20's on Sunday.

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The Wasatch Powderbird Guides - for information, call them at 801-742-2800 or go to their daily blog. 

UDOT highway avalanche control work info can be found by calling (801) 975-4838. Our statewide toll free line is 1-888-999-4019 (early morning, option 8).

The UAC depends on contributions from users like you to support our work.  To find out more about how you can support our efforts to continue providing the avalanche forecasting and education that you expect please visit our Friends page.

If you’re getting out and see anything we should know about please let us know.  You can leave a message at (801) 524-5304 or 1-800-662-4140, or email us at uac@utahavalanchecenter.org. (Fax 801-524-6301).

The information in this advisory is from the U.S. Forest Service, which is solely responsible for its content.  This advisory describes general avalanche conditions and local variations always occur.

Brett Kobernik will update this forecast by 7:30 on Sunday morning.