Avalanche Advisory
Advisory: Salt Lake Area Mountains Issued by Brett Kobernik for Friday - December 19, 2014 - 6:52am
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Most areas will have a LOW avalanche danger today. There will be a MODERATE avalanche danger along the upper elevation lee ridgelines with recent deposits of wind drifted snow. Keep in mind the snow surface may still be prone to sluffing on all steep slopes. Use slope cuts prior diving into a slope. Prod any fresh drifts and kick small cornices to get a feel if the new drifts will crack.




special announcement

Know an Alta skier deserving of a unique holiday gift? How about ski locker in the GMD basement at Alta? A locker has been donated to the UAC and we are going to lease that for this ski season to the highest bidder. Details here.

Discount lift tickets are in and for sale - ski a day at the resorts and benefit the Utah Avalanche Center. Tickets for Alta, Brighton, Deer Valley, Solitude, and Snowbasin, Snowbird, and Sundance are in and more tickets are expected shortly.

current conditions

A period of snow Thursday morning produced 3" of new low density snow making riding conditions quite nice. The snow surface was prone to sluffing on the steeper slopes. Winds have been very light from a westerly direction. Temperatures are fairly cold in the mid teens at most mountain locations.

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

The low density snow on the surface will be susceptible to transport with any bump in wind speeds. The anticipated slight increas in wind speeds during the day could form fresh drifts that may be sensitive to people. Watch the lee sides of ridges on the eastern half of the compass in upper elevation terrain.

Keep in mind we have a shallow and varied snowpack and there may still be an area where you could get a slab to release on weak faceted snow. Any wind loading will enhance this issue. You'll have to get pretty unlucky to find one of these but shallow snowpack locations in the upper elevation terrain are the most likely places.

weather

We'll have mostly cloudy skies with a slight bump in wind speeds today. Westerly winds will be in the moderate speed range along the mid elevation ridges and ridgetop temperatures will get into the 20s. We have an upcoming period of stormy weather starting Saturday with chances for light snow during the day. The more potent storm will move through Sunday and Monday bringing warmer and windy conditions with copious amounts of water. This could produce 12 to 24 inches of higher density snow. Anticipate rising avalanche danger.

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, 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  If you would like to get the daily advisory by email 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.

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 with more resorts to come soon.  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.  You can see the uphill travel policy for each resort here. IMPORTANT: Before skinning or hiking 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.