Salt Lake Avalanche Advisory

Forecaster: Brett Kobernik

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

The Park City Ski Resort Snow Safety team will be conducting explosive testing within the ski area boundary which will be closed to backcountry travel starting today. Please help the snow safety team by avoiding the area.

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 at Level 3 (Considerable) in any wind exposed terrain especially along northerly facing upper elevation ridges. Dangerous avalanche conditions are present and human triggered avalanches are likely. If you don’t have expert level snowpack and avalanche assessment skills we urge you to stick to slopes of 30 degrees in steepness or less.

CURRENT CONDITIONS

Temperatures cooled into the mid teens and upper single digits overnight. Winds slowed a bit but are still a bit gusty. They are generally from the south but quite variable from station to station. A few more inches of snow fell overnight. It’s lower density then the snow from the last couple of days which should make things quite pleasing out there today. Storm totals in the Cottonwoods are in the two foot range with 2.5 to 3.5 inches of water equivalent. Brighton is the winner with 34" and 4.2" H2O.

RECENT ACTIVITY

We most likely experienced a natural avalanche cycle during the day on Sunday. A couple of reports of larger natural slab avalanches hinted at things we couldn’t see. As for things we could see, there was no shortage of human triggered avalanches with too many details to list here. Numerous avalanches were reported from Sunday, some unintentional, some intentional, some remotely triggered, some sympathetic to other slides, some VERY deep with a crown reported as 10 feet deep in Daly Bowl. They were a good mix of new snow instability as well as avalanches breaking into older weak snow deeper in the pack. Check Current Conditions or our Avalanche Lists from the main menu above for more details.

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

The most dangerous avalanche problem today is the potential for a deep slab breaking into weak snow deeper in the snowpack. These layers are more pronounced in the thinner areas then I’d like to see and haven’t healed as much as I’d hoped they would. These probably won’t release naturally today and you’ll probably need to tilt the slope up to 35 degrees or steeper to trigger them. You’ll find that this problem is most pronounced in areas that had a thinner snowpack prior to this storm. Pay special attention around the Brighton backcountry and Park City Ridgeline. Collapsing of the snowpack beneath you is cause for concern. You want to be diligent and dig down looking for weakness below the rime crust. Use Extended Column Tests to check for propagation in these layers. What makes this tricky is this problem isn’t present everywhere so don’t let your guard down if you’re not seeing it. While you may find more areas with new snow instability, this deeper slab problem is more dangerous in my opinion.

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

The new snow instabilities won’t be as sensitive today as yesterday but they still warrant caution. Always use ski cuts prior to diving into steeper slopes. Watch for cracking and perform numerous hand pits checking for shears within the new snow. Shovel Tilt Tests are also an excellent tool. Keep in mind that there may be instability in the transition zones where graupel pooled and could still be sensitive.

MOUNTAIN WEATHER

We’re expecting more snow today but it will be more pronounced north of I-80. That said, we should still see 2 to 5” of lower density snow during the day today. Ridgetop temperatures should be in the upper teens to low 20s. Ridgetop winds are still going to be a bit gusty from a west or southwest direction. Winds will increase Tuesday ahead of a well pronounced but short lived frontal passage Tuesday night which should produce another good shot of snow.

GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

Please contact Alta Central (801-742-2033) if you trigger a large avalanche in the backcountry - especially if you are adjacent to a ski area - to alert them to the slide and whether anyone is missing or not. Rescue teams can be exposed to significant hazard when responding to avalanches, and do not want to do so when unneeded. Thanks.

Soon! Discount Lift tickets: Ski Utah, Backcountry.com, Alta, Deer Valley, Park City, The Canyons, Wolf Mountain, Snowbasin, Beaver Mountain, Brighton, Sundance, and Solitude have donated a limited number of tickets for sale at discounted prices.

Wasatch Powderbird Guides flight plan.

Dawn Patrol Forecast Hotline, updated by 05:30: 888-999-4019 option 8.

Daily observations are frequently posted by 10 pm each evening.

Free UAC iPhone app from Canyon Sports.

Subscribe to the daily avalanche advisory e-mail click HERE.

UDOT canyon closures UDOT at (801) 975-4838

We appreciate all your avalanche and snow observations. You can also call us at 801-524-5304 or 800-662-4140, or email to uac@utahavalanchecenter.org

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.

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 forecast tomorrow morning. Thanks for calling.

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.