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

We'll have pockets of Considerable in all wind loaded terrain today. While not as sensitive as yesterday, there is a higher potential for incidents as the hard slabs and wind slabs will be less manageable for the backcountry recreationist. Avoid the corniced ridgelines and continue to travel with safe protocol.


CURRENT CONDITIONS

The southerly winds continue to punish the Wasatch range. Anemometers are spinning 35-45mph with gusts to near 70 at 11,000’ and 20-25mph in more sheltered terrain. Temps are at 24 hour highs in the mid to upper 20’s and skies are overcast. The relentless winds damaged much of the open terrain yesterday, and anything spared now has el viento’s signature. The hero snow is now a thing of the past.


RECENT ACTIVITY

Shallow naturalling, cornice falls, and skier triggering proved to be the rule and not the exception. Eddying and channeling loaded westerly, northerly, and easterly aspects both just off the ridgelines, and again down low. Most soft slabs were 10-16” deep and up to 250’ wide, with a few overrunning ski and skin tracks. Demanding attention, however, is an intentional ski cut that produced a 2-3’+ deep and 250’ wide wind slab running on preserved 4-6mm surface hoar. It broke along the Bountiful ridgeline on a steep north-northeast facing slope at 8600’, also taking out old tracks. Natural cornice failure and minor wet roller-balls at the lower elevations rounded out the activity. We also heard about a skier that suffered a contused femur after straight-lining through a rocky section of chute while attempting to outrun a shallow wind pocket in mid-LCC. Bruce's gallery from the field is here.


THREAT #1

WHERE PROBABILITY SIZE TREND
      Over the next 12 hours.

They’ll be decidedly stiffer in lee terrain today and less sensitive than during yesterday’s time of transition. Ski and slope cuts and cornice drops will be perhaps less effective as a mitigation tool with new hard slabs. Listen for collapsing of the stiff wind board on the lighter density stellars from the Saturday and give the stout new cornices plenty of room – they’ll break back further than you think with a resounding collapse. Few open aspects and elevations were spared the damage and loading – go for the mid to low elevation glades for good turns and better snow stability.


THREAT #2

WHERE PROBABILITY SIZE TREND
      Over the next 24 hours.

Buried weak near surface facets and surface hoar is worth a continued mention in our lower elevation shady terrain, but is more pronounced in the Logan and Ogden area mountains and adjacent terrain. This weakness has produced recent avalanche activity and is considered a persistent weakness making it much harder to deal with then just new snow instabilities. It often won’t rear its head with slope cuts and may not show any other obvious signs of instability. The only thing you can do is constantly dig down and look for it which will be in the 12 to 24 inch depths. If you find it it’s best to avoid those slopes. This has been found in numerous locations adjacent to the Snowbasin ski resort.


MOUNTAIN WEATHER

Overcast skies and strong southerly winds will precede tonight’s storm. Temps will be in the low 30s at 8000’ and the mid-20’s at 10,000’. The Ogden, eastern Park City areas, and the Provo mountains are likely to initially benefit tonight and tomorrow, with the Ogden, Big Cottonwood, and Canyons resorts catching up later Monday into Tuesday. Continued snowfall into Wednesday should leave an even coat of 14-18” and more in favored terrain. High pressure kicks in for the remainder of the week.


GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

Our web page is now mobile-friendly for users of iPhone and iPod Touch.

Wasatch Powderbird Guides. Operations planning page is here.

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 toward the Tombstone lift, 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.

We 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.