Salt Lake Avalanche Advisory

Forecaster: Drew Hardesty

BOTTOM LINE

Danger by aspect and elevation on slopes approaching 35° or steeper.
(click HERE for tomorrow's danger rating)


Danger Rose Tutorial

The avalanche danger is mostly LOW. Most of the rogue wind slabs are welded in place, but use Normal Caution (see below in the discussion). Avoid the steep sun-exposed faces with daytime heating.

CURRENT CONDITIONS

Skies are clear, winds are light, and temperatures are in the mid twenties at most locations. Riding conditions are still excellent in the sheltered shady slopes and down low when crashing through the fields of surface hoar. Easy trail-breaking, good stability, favorable weather and soft settled powder won’t last long – the next set of storms are on tap for late Thursday into the weekend, and perhaps beyond. Get out and bag that long-sought-after super-tour, summit, or line.

What else? If you had any doubts or concerns about the Black Diamond Avalung, check out this accident report from the Gore Range in Colorado.

RECENT ACTIVITY

No reports of activity from the backcountry.

THREAT #1
WHERE PROBABILITY SIZE TREND
      Over the next 24 hours.

What does “Normal Caution” mean? It means putting a cut across the top of a rollover or at the top of a chute……spreading out if walking through a steep walled gulley….. putting only one rider on the slope at a time….. asking “what are the consequences if a small sluff takes me off my board(s) or machine”….. carrying all the rescue gear and knowing how to use it….avoiding the steep sunny slopes in the afternoon on a warm day…..tip-toeing quickly if having to walk underneath the yawning glide cracks…..and so on and so forth. Uncommon sense goes a long way. Listen to your intuition.

THREAT #2
WHERE PROBABILITY SIZE TREND
      Over the next 24 hours.

Slightly warming temps today. Don't get careless with timing or route finding on the steep sunny slopes by midday.

MOUNTAIN WEATHER

High and dry. We’ll have light and variable winds and temps warming to 30 at 10,000’ and near 40 at 8000’. The ridge will start to move off to the east with the first in a series of storms arriving on a southwest flow by Thursday evening. Maybe 6-8” for areas favored by this storm track.

GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

Wasatch Powderbird Guides will return to the Sessions and Cascade today. Operations planning page is here.

The last of the Beaver Mountain Discount tickets have been reduced to $35, with all proceeds going to the Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center. Click HERE for details.

The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center Level 2 avalanche class is full.

Tickets are now available for the annual Backcountry Awareness Dinner on February 13th, with registration through the Snowbird Renaissance Center.

Beacon training parks are up and running! There is one at Snowbasin, one on the Park City side at the top of Canyon’s gondola, one in Little Cottonwood near the Snowbird parking structure on the bypass road, and in Big Cottonwood a training park is at the west end of Solitude's lower parking lot.

If you want to get this avalanche advisory e-mailed to you daily click HERE.

For a text only version, the link is on the left side bar, near the top.

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.

Your snow and avalanche observations help everyone in the backcountry community. Please let us know what you're seeing by leaving a message at (801) 524-5304 or 1-800-662-4140, or email us at uac@utahavalanchecenter.org. (Fax 801-524-6301).

I will update this advisory by 7:30 tomorrow morning.

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.

This advisory provided by the USDA Forest Service, in partnership with:

The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center, Utah Division of State Parks and Recreation, Utah Division of Emergency Management, Salt Lake County, Salt Lake Unified Fire Authority and the friends of the La Sal Avalanche Center. See our Sponsors Page for a complete list.