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

You’ll find areas of soggy Considerable in the mid to low elevation sheltered slopes. The sunnier aspects will also rapidly warm beyond safe travel by mid to late morning as well. Free water percolating down may initiate some deeper glide releases in the usual terrain in Stairs Gulch, Mill B South, and Broads Fork.


CURRENT CONDITIONS

Scattered clouds dot the skies this morning and the (lack of) sky cover may help to offset another warm night. By my count, this is three nights with a marginal refreeze, and the plumbing in the transitional snowpack is not good. Winds continue to hum along from the southwest at 20-25mph with some gusting to 50…and temps are right at, or above, freezing.


RECENT ACTIVITY

The gluttons for punishment found some good natural activity from Monday and easy-to-initiate wet glop and pinwheels in the saturated snow. UDOT Little Cottonwood investigated an entirely new type of avalanche in the morning, and I put together a gallery of their photos, added some commentary and some notes on the history of avalanche work in Little Cottonwood.


THREAT #1

WHERE PROBABILITY SIZE TREND
      Over the next 24 hours.

Be alert to early-softening crusts and saturated concrete in the sheltered terrain. Poor choices would be skiing or riding down into a steep walled gulley with your friends moving down on top of you.


THREAT #2

WHERE PROBABILITY SIZE TREND
      Over the next 24 hours.

See polemic on cornices from yesterday........Stronger southerwesterlies fostered some wind drift development along the higher northerly terrain yesterday. Only a few cracked out to human weight and would be a factor if you have unforgiving terrain below.


MOUNTAIN WEATHER

The clouds are quickly rolling in ahead of a quick and dirty teaser storm that pushes through this evening. Only a few inches are likely in the higher terrain, notably north of I-80. West to southwest winds will be 20-25mph and temps will be near freezing at 10,000’ and near 40 at 8000’. Friday morning’s cold front may be a better bet for sub-advisory snow totals, with a dirty ridge over the weekend. Longer range models hint at continued unsettled weather into next 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 can save someone’s life. 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.

Evelyn Lees 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.