Salt Lake Avalanche Advisory

Forecaster: Evelyn Lees

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

It is tomorrow night – the annual Canyons Professional Ski Patrol Association fundraiser for the Friends of the UAC at Harry O’s in Park City. Doors open at 7 pm, and live music from Junior and Transportation, a silent auction, raffle, and more are included in the $15 cover charge/donation. Details

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 will rise to MODERATE and then to CONSIDERABLE with daytime heating. Human triggered wet sluffs will become likely on all steep slopes except the high northerly facing aspects. Natural wet sluffs and some slab avalanches are possible. Backcountry travelers need to get an early start and early finish. Once the snow heats up, move to a cooler aspect, stay on low angle slopes and out from under steep slopes or head home for the day.

CURRENT CONDITIONS

All eyes are on temperatures and cloud cover. Skies are clear this morning, but overnight lows inched up just a few degrees over last night. Temperatures currently in the low to mid thirties at the 8 to 10,000’ level, with a sprinkling of 20’s along the higher ridgelines and in the cool valley bottoms. Winds are very light, less than 10 mph at most stations. Searching for corn? There is a decent surface refreeze this morning, but it will be short lived once the sun rises. Get an early start, and change aspects fast as snow heats up, moving from east to south to west. You can prolong your day by cruising the low angle slopes, well out from under steep slopes or staying on high elevation, shady slopes.

RECENT ACTIVITY

Even with very few observations, two class 2 naturals were reported yesterday. A wet loose natural occurred off Roberts Horn in the Provo area mountains at 12:20 pm, and a large wet sluff off the south face of Superior at 3:30 pm.

THREAT #1
WHERE PROBABILITY SIZE TREND
      Over the next 12 hours.

Today, easily human triggered wet loose sluffs are a given on steep slopes once the day heats up. On any steep slope where the surface snow becomes damp to wet, a simple push will first initiate roller balls, and then get sluffs moving, which can fan out and end in deep, cement like debris piles. The threat of high thin clouds means the surface snow on the shady, northerly facing slopes could also heat up and get in on the wet action, especially at the low to mid elevations.

The more challenging forecasting problem is the possibility and timing of spontaneous wet sluffs charging down on you from above or the possibility of triggering a larger, more dangerous wet slab avalanche. Even when the snow surface is frozen, there can be wet snow hidden beneath, which can act as a weak layer. While wet slabs are unpredictable, chances do increase with daytime heating, as do spontaneous wet avalanches. Avoidance works best - stay off of and out from under steep slopes as they heat up.

MOUNTAIN WEATHER

An approaching weak weather disturbance will spread high thin clouds over northern Utah today. Temperatures will once again warm into the low 50’s at 8,000’ and the mid 30’s at 10,000’. The southerly winds will remain very light this morning and then increase slightly this afternoon into the 10 to 15 mph range across the highest peaks. Mostly cloudy skies tonight, with mountain temperatures right around freezing. Then, we just have to suffer through two more very warm days before a return to winter. A decent looking cold front could bring significant snowfall Sunday afternoon through Monday night.

GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

Wasatch Powderbird Guides skied in Cardiff, Days and Cascade yesterday, and will operate in American Fork, Cascade and the Sessions today. Check their operations planning page is here.

Our web site is now formatted for iPhone. You can also download a free iPhone application from Canyon Sports to display the Bottom Line. Search for Utah Avalanche on the Apple's iPhone Apps page or in iTunes.

The North American Avalanche Danger Scale is being revised for next winter. Our friends in Canada have created a short survey found at the following link. Please help ensure the new Avalanche Danger Scale is effective by completing a survey. http://surveys.globalepanel.com/wix/p319164581.aspx

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).

Donate to your favorite non-profit – The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center. 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.

Bruce Tremper 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.