Salt Lake Avalanche Advisory

Forecaster: Drew Hardesty

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

More free avalanche awareness talks coming up: Friday Dec 9, 6 pm at White Pine Touring in Park City Tuesday, Dec 13, 7pm at the Sandy REI (possibly full?) And another one, Canyon Inn Dec 15, 7-9pm.

For more upcoming events and more details, go to our calendar - easily found at the top of the page (or off the Home page)

BOTTOM LINE

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


Danger Rose Tutorial

The overall danger remains LOW. Isolated pockets of MODERATE exist for lingering shallow wind drifts along the lee of the ridge and sub ridges and for cold sluffs in the ever-weakening surface snow. Although the probability of triggering slides are on the low side, the consequences are extreme because with this thin snowpack. Even a small avalanche will involve a nasty ride through rocks.

CURRENT CONDITIONS

Temps continue their upward march. We have a 48 hour trend of -4F to 12F to a current 22F at 9500'. Basins and trailheads suffer temps in the low single digits. Winds picked up a touch overnight from the northwest (15 with gusts to 25) but have since become generally light.

Riding conditions aren't bad in the new few inches of snow we've received over the past few days. It's all a matter of scale.

Note: for those of you who only read the emailed advisory, none of the menus are visible. So you should visit the home page www.UtahAvalancheCenter.org once in awhile to discover a wide variety of cool things available.

RECENT ACTIVITY

Artillery (for sighting in purposes in Provo) produced some smallish loose snow (facet) sluffs in some of their steepest terrain. Our ace observer in the Uintas - Ted Scroggin - observed some natural sluffing and then found a 10-12" deep wind slab to safely and intentionally trigger on a test slope. Others found shallow cracking in wind loaded terrain.

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

The moderate winds will have drifted the few inches of cold smoke and weak faceted snow into some shallow minor drifts that could still be sensitive to human triggering. These may have drifted onto some of the diamond-hard wind slabs from the 1st, greased with low density snow and facets just above.

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

The remaining considerations are a bit like the Island of Misfit Toys. They include continued sluffing in the ever weakening surface snow, possible shallow wet roller balls and sluffs, and the very unlikely possibility of triggering one of the persistent slabs lingering in the high northerly terrain. Traumatic injury from touring in a shallow snowpack, getting knocked off one's feet or ride from a sluff, or a "slide-for life" on bulletproof wind drift remain distinct possibilities.

MOUNTAIN WEATHER

We'll have clear skies, generally light wind, and mountain temps in the upper 20s to low 30s. A weak brush-by tomorrow should bring a bump in wind and about a 10 degree drop in temps. There's the possibility of a one-hit-"wonder" about a week out, but it looks fairly dry after that. Maybe our luck will change over the holidays.

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)

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

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.