Salt Lake Avalanche Advisory

Forecaster: Drew Hardesty

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

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BOTTOM LINE

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


Danger Rose Tutorial

Pockets of CONSIDERABLE (L3) danger exist for the mid and upper elevation wind drifted terrain. Most suspect wind affected terrain has a northerly to easterly component approaching 35 degrees and steeper. Other avalanching is expected on the steep sun-exposed slopes with sun and daytime heating. Good snow assessment skills and strict travel protocol is required for backcountry travel in steep terrain today. Plenty of LOW danger 5 star riding can be found in protected mid-elevation terrain on slopes less steep than 35 degrees.


CURRENT CONDITIONS

Cold and clear. Temps are in the single digits up high, the low teens down low. Winds seem to be taking the day off. They’re westerly and less than 15mph. Snowfall continued throughout the day, with the Cottonwoods picking up another 4-8”, the Park City, Provo, and Ogden mountains another 3-5. This pushes storm totals since Saturday night to

· Cottonwoods 25-30”

· Ogden 15-20”

· Park City 12-15”

· Provo 14-18”

Riding conditions will be 5 star. Go ahead and sluff work – we won’t tell.

RECENT ACTIVITY

In the Central Wasatch – we found ‘touchy’ new wind slabs up to 10” deep with one near Wolverine that propagated 200’ wide. Some naturalling in the storm snow occurred during periods of heavier snowfall rates and the morning’s drifting winds. Pretty much anything steep and wind-drifted would move with provocation.

In the Provo area mountains, Kobernik eye-balled a good size natural in the Wooley Hole – a heavily wind loaded east-northeast facing slope at 9000’ there on the north side of Timpanogos. The slide ran during the peak of the storm yesterday morning, pulling out 2’ deep and 400’ wide, running over 1000’. On the south side of Timp, an intentional cornice drop yielded a 16” deep and 100’ wide hard slab on a steep northeast facing slope at 9500’.

Deep slabs reared their ugly heads in the Ogden and Logan area mountains Monday night/early Tuesday. They were reported in the Powder Mountain backcountry and Millville Peak areas, respectively, and broke 4-5’ deep and up to 200’ wide. I don’t have complete details, but believe these pulled out on north to east facing slopes beween 8500’ and 9200’. The deep slab in the Ogden mountains reportedly had snapped trees and vegetation littered in the debris. While these made the headlines, ski area control efforts resulted in many slides up to and just over 2’ deep in wind drifted terrain.

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

While the overall stability is on the rise, sun and rapid warming will conspire to keep a few wind and cross-loaded slopes unstable and sensitive to human triggering. You can’t write off the potential for triggering hard drifts up to 2’ deep. The most recent wind event is only 36 hours old – if natural and cornice drop hard slabs pulled out yesterday in the steep wind-loaded terrain, we can still see a few pull out today. I’d probably give them another day to heal, sinter, and gain strength.

Plenty of weak interfaces remain among the mulitple snow and dust events since the weekend - each slope should be assessed individually and ridden conservatively.

THREAT #2
WHERE PROBABILITY SIZE TREND
      Over the next 10 hours.

It is spring, and every time it snows, the new snow will be very sensitive to any sun, thinning of the clouds, or day time heating. Expect damp snow sluffs to be easily triggered by afternoon on low to mid elevation slopes of all aspects. Roller balls are a first sign that the new snow is heating up and becoming damp. Avoid the common terrain traps such as gullies, where even a small sluff can pile up the snow deeply.

THREAT #3
WHERE PROBABILITY SIZE TREND
      Over the next 24 hours.

The most recent ‘loading event’ is done, but large cornice drops or other new snow avalanches may still be enough of a trigger for isolated deeper slabs in steep north through east terrain.

MOUNTAIN WEATHER

The first bluebird of Spring arrives today. Winds will be generally light from the west southwest and temps will rise to the low to mid 20s at 10,000’ and the low to mid 30s at 8000’. Get it while you can – we have another quick hitting storm tomorrow, Friday, and again later in the weekend. We’re far from done folks.

GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

If you trigger an avalanche in the backcountry - especially if you are adjacent to a ski area – please call the following teams 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.

Salt Lake – Alta Central (801-742-2033)

Ogden – Snowbasin Patrol Dispatch (801-620-1017)

Provo – Sundance Patrol Dispatch (801-223-4150)

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.

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.

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

UDOT canyon closures UDOT at (801) 975-4838

You have the opportunity to participate in the creation of our own community avalanche advisory by submitting avalanche and snow observations. You can also call us at 801-524-5304 or 800-662-4140, or email by clicking HERE

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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.