Salt Lake Avalanche Advisory

Forecaster: Brett Kobernik

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

Our partners, the Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center, with the Snowbird Renaissance Center, are hosting the annual Utah Backcountry Awareness Benefit Dinner and Silent Auction Friday, February 13th, from 5:30-9:00 pm, at Snowbird. It’s a bit of a splurge, but it’s always a very enjoyable evening. Included is dinner, a silent auction, inspirational speaker Chris Waddell chronicling how he overcame a life-changing college skiing accident to become the most decorated male skier in Paralympic history, plus live entertainment by “Stormy Mountain Boys”. For details and tickets, go to the Snowbird Renaissance Center's web site.


BOTTOM LINE

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


Danger Rose Tutorial

There is a pockety MODERATE avalanche danger along the ridges on steep slopes where recent drifts have formed. These drifts will mainly be on northwest through northeast facing upper elevation slopes. Watch for cracking which will indicate the presence of sensitive drifts and use slope cuts where appropriate to test for these as well. Lower elevations should be monitored for wet activity today as well.


CURRENT CONDITIONS

A few more inches of snow accumulated during the day on Saturday and temperatures were mild making the snow damp at the lower elevations and on aspects that received a glimpse of the sun. Upper elevation northerly aspects held good riding conditions. Ridgetop winds were a little more complex in that they varied quite a bit from ridge to ridge with some folks reporting light to moderate speeds and others reporting more gusty conditions. In general, there was a slight increase in the afternoon and into the evening. Of note is the not so usual easterly component to their direction. Winds slowed a bit over the last 6 hours and are still from the southeast. Temperatures are in the low to mid 20s except the highest locations which are in the upper teens.


RECENT ACTIVITY

No significant avalanche activity was reported from Saturday and most people found stable conditions. Minor activity included loose snow sluffing (photo) on the steeper upper elevation northerly slopes and a few spots that did crack but didn’t release with the weight of a person. (photo) There was some minor wet activity at the lower elevations as well. Taking a quick look at the current layering shows areas of weak snow that formed last week which are now covered up. This weakness has not produced any activity mainly due to lack of a slab on top of it. It’s worth it to keep this layering in mind as we expect to add some more snow to it over the next 48 hours. This problem may be scattered but can mainly be found on the more northerly aspects that were sheltered from sun and wind before the storm. Quick hand pits will reveal the pattern of the weakness to the trained eye. (photo)


THREAT #1

WHERE PROBABILITY SIZE TREND
      Over the next 24 hours.

Drifts that formed over the last 24 hours will be our main concern for most of the day today. These will be somewhat spotty as the wind speeds varied from ridge to ridge yesterday. Keep in mind that the wind direction did have that easterly component to it which will have formed drifts in areas where you may not usually find them. Also, the newest snow may still be prone to sluffing on the steeper slopes. Slope cuts will help give you an idea of what’s going on with these two concerns.


THREAT #2

WHERE PROBABILITY SIZE TREND
      Over the next 24 hours.

A minor secondary concern is wet activity at the lower elevations. These places did not receive very much snow over the last few days but there was enough to “rollerball” and sluff into a few small debris piles. With continued mild temperatures, keep this in mind again today.


MOUNTAIN WEATHER

We’ll again have cloudy skies with periods of snow today with more accumulation expected as the day goes on. There’s a chance for snow flurries during the day with 2 to 4 inches possible overnight in southwest flow. Southeast ridgetop wind speeds will average 5 to 15 mph gusting into the 20s and switching more to the southwest this afternoon. Temperatures will again be mild with highs around freezing at the 8000 foot level and in the mid 20s along the ridges. Continued snowfall is expected over the next 48 hours with better accumulation expected Monday.


GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

Wasatch Powderbird Guides did not fly yesterday and most likely won’t fly today due to weather. 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.

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 visitour 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).

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.

Bruce 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.