Avalanche Advisory
Advisory: Salt Lake Area Mountains Issued by Bruce Tremper for Sunday - February 16, 2014 - 5:54am
bottom line

The AVALANCHE DANGER IS HIGH for deep slabs breaking deep and wide, especially on the northwest through easterly facing slopes. The danger is CONSIDERABLE for wet slides on all aspects at elevations below about 8,500' and for fresh wind slabs and cornices in the upper elevation wind exposed terrain. Backcountry travelers should avoid slopes steeper than 30 degrees and avalanche run out zones. Those without good avalanche skills should avoid the backcountry today. Remember, this includes those leaving the exit gates of ski areas.




avalanche warning

An Avalanche Warning remain in effect for all the mountains of northern and central Utah  Dangerous avalanche conditions exist on many aspects and elevations. Backcountry travelers should avoid slopes steeper than 30 degrees and all avalanche run out zones.

special announcement

Remember, there is safe world-class powder skiing to be had at the resorts right now. You can get donated discount lift tickets here [link to http://www.backcountry.com/Store/catalog/search.jsp?q=utah+avalanche+center&s=u] to benefit the Utah Avalanche Center.

current conditions

The wind continues to pick up and temperatures continue to rise in advance of the strong cold front expected by mid day. Temperatures are 5 degrees warmer this morning than yesterday morning. At 9,500' it was 38 degrees overnight with near freezing at 11,000'. On the highest peaks the wind is blowing 36, gusting to 64 from the southwest and on most ridge tops it's blowing 20, gusting to 50.

The snow yesterday was dry, dense, Styrofoam that rode fast with moist to wet snow at elevations below about 8,500'.

recent activity

Several natural and human triggered avalanches continued to occur in the backcountry yesterday throughout northern and central Utah. Here are the ones we know about for the Wasatch Range: Click on the hot links to view the more detailed reports.

  • South of Twin Lakes Pass - intentionally, cornice-triggered avalanche deep slab 4' deep, 200' wide. (I arrived afterwards and myself, as well as a helicopter search, noticed a lone, fresh, ski track covered by debris with no apparent exit track. I searched the debris and found no beacon signal and noticed a hard-to-see exit track that was not visible from the helicopter who also did a long-line beacon search).
  • Wolverine Cirque natural deep slab
  • Radar Love Bowl (near Scott's Peak on the Park City ridge line) 4' x 400'
  • New snow and/or wind slabs in Dutch Draw and Flagstaff Ridge

There are also new and better photos of avalanche activity from the 14th including: Cardiac Pass, West Monitor, and Loafer Mountain south of Provo.

In other areas, in the Uinta Mountains there was a very large, explosive triggered avalanche yesterday and on the Manti Skyline, a snowmobiler triggered a very large, deep slab and he is lucky to be alive.

Radar Love Bowl near Scott's Peak on the Park City ridge line was triggered by an intentional cornice drop. Thanks to "Bayou Dave" for the photos

Intentional cornice drop triggered this 4' x 200' avalanche south of Twin Lakes Pass between Brighton and Alta. It was thought for awhile that someone was buried in it.

Avalanche Problem 1
type aspect/elevation characteristics
LIKELIHOOD
LIKELY
UNLIKELY
SIZE
LARGE
SMALL
TREND
INCREASING DANGER
SAME
DECREASING DANGER
over the next 24 hours
description

With another wallop of dense new snow and wind from 3 days ago, the snowpack continues to creak and groan under the weight and several natural and human triggered deep slabs wonderfully illustrate the concept. These avalanches are all 3-6 feet deep monsters and breaking quite wide. They are becoming more difficult to trigger but several yesterday did not take much provocation with fresh cornices dropped on them. The only way to manage this kind of beast is to avoid them. The slopes facing north through east at upper elevations seem the worst right now but some have occurred on other aspects and elevations in the past 3 days.

Avalanche Problem 2
type aspect/elevation characteristics
LIKELIHOOD
LIKELY
UNLIKELY
SIZE
LARGE
SMALL
TREND
INCREASING DANGER
SAME
DECREASING DANGER
over the next 24 hours
description

Although the upper elevations remained quite dry yesterday, we heard about several wet slabs and push-a-lanches at elevations below about 8,500' on most aspects. As always, avoid slopes when they get wet and soggy. With the warmer temperatures this morning, the elevation band will likely rise to around 9,000'. The cold front today will freeze everything up but because snow is such a good insulator, it will take a few hours for the heat to escape from the wet snow.

Avalanche Problem 3
type aspect/elevation characteristics
LIKELIHOOD
LIKELY
UNLIKELY
SIZE
LARGE
SMALL
TREND
INCREASING DANGER
SAME
DECREASING DANGER
over the next 24 hours
description

Expect some continued fresh wind slabs and sensitive, fresh cornices along the upper elevation, wind exposed terrain. As always, avoid slopes with recent wind deposits and avoid walking up to drop offs along ridges.

weather

We will have very warm temperatures and strong wind from the southwest this morning before the cold front arrives by mid day. We should only get 1-3 inches of fresh snow as it passes. Temperatures will drop rapidly after the front dropping from the upper 30's to the mid teens later in the day. Temperature should rebound with sunny skies on Monday and Tuesday and we have another cold front due on Wednesday.

general announcements

Remember your information can save lives. If you see anything we should know about, please participate in the creation of our own community avalanche advisory by submitting snow and avalanche conditions. You can also call us at 801-524-5304 or 800-662-4140, email by clicking HERE, or include #utavy in your tweet or Instagram.

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 and Park City – Alta Central (801-742-2033), Canyons Resort Dispatch (435-615-3322)

Snowbasin Resort Dispatch (801-620-1017), Powder Mountain Dispatch (801-745-3772 x 123).

Sundance Dispatch (801-223-4150)

EMAIL ADVISORY We have switched to a new SLC email advisory system. If you would like to get the daily advisory by email, or if you have been getting the advisory by email since the beginning of the season and wish to continue, you will need to subscribe here.​  

DAWN PATROL Hotline updated daily by 5-530am - 888-999-4019 option 8.

Twitter Updates for your mobile phone - DETAILS

UDOT canyon closures:  LINK TO UDOT

Utah Avalanche Center mobile app - Get your advisory on your iPhone along with great navigation and rescue tools.uned.

Wasatch Powderbird Guides Blog/Itinerary for the Day.  

Lost or Found something in the backcountry? - http://nolofo.com/

Ski Utah mobile snow updates

Discount lift tickets are now available at Backcountry.com - Thanks to Ski Utah and the Utah Resorts.  All proceeds go towards paying for Utah Avalanche Center avalanche and mountain weather advisories.

To those skinning uphill at resorts:  it is your responsibility to know the resort policy on uphill travel.  Some allow uphill travel and have guidelines, some don't. Contact the Ski Patrol at each resort for details. IMPORTANT: Before skinning at a resort under new snow conditions, check in with Ski Patrol.  Resorts can restrict or cut off access if incompatible with control and grooming operations.

Benefit the Utah Avalanche Center when you shop from Backcountry.com or REI:  Click this link for Backcountry.com or this link to REI, shop, and they will donate a percent of your purchase price to the UAC.  Both offer free shipping (with some conditions) so this costs you nothing!

Benefit the Utah Avalanche Center when you buy or sell on ebay - set the Utah Avalanche Center as a favorite non-profit in your ebay account here and click on ebay gives when you buy or sell.  You can choose to have your seller fees donated to the UAC, which doesn't cost you a penny.

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 exist.