Please join us at the 23rd annual Black Diamond Fall Fundraiser Party Thursday Sept 15. Tickets are on sale now here, at the Black Diamond store & at REI. Special bonus raffle for online ticket purchasers! |
Please join us at the 23rd annual Black Diamond Fall Fundraiser Party Thursday Sept 15. Tickets are on sale now here, at the Black Diamond store & at REI. Special bonus raffle for online ticket purchasers! |
Advisory: Salt Lake Area Mountains | Issued by Mark Staples for Thursday - February 4, 2016 - 5:51am |
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special announcement TONIGHT, Thursday at 6:00pm - The Utah Adventure Journal Speaker Series presents professional skier Brody Leven, who will share the story of his incredible adventure to climb and ski the northernmost active volcano in a 36-hour push from his sailboat base camp. More info HERE. Tuesday, February 9th - Companion Rescue at Weller Recreation from 6:30-9pm. For more info HERE. Wednesday February 10th - Avalanche Clinic for Ice Climbers. For more info click HERE. There are still a few spaces in the Women’s Backcountry 101 avalanche classes at Brighton this weekend and Snowbasin in 2 weeks. For more info on those classes and other education offerings through out the state, check out our Education Page. |
current conditions Temperatures this morning are in the single digits to low teens F. Winds increased since yesterday and this morning were blowing 10-15 mph gusting to 30 mph from the W and SW. Cold temperatures, new snow, and limited sunshine have made great riding conditions on wind sheltered slopes. |
recent activity We are saddened by the avalanche death of a backcountry skier who was killed Sunday, along the Park City ridge line. A preliminary report is HERE. We visited the site yesterday and will have more information posted in coming days. Avalanche activity yesterday involved fresh wind slabs triggered during ski area avalanche reduction work with ski cuts and explosives. |
type | aspect/elevation | characteristics |
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LIKELIHOOD
LIKELY
UNLIKELY
SIZE
LARGE
SMALL
TREND
INCREASING DANGER
SAME
DECREASING DANGER
|
description
It's hard to drop the danger due to wind slabs with more strong winds occurring this morning. I doubt they have as much new snow to transport as they did early this week, and fresh wind slabs shouldn't be as widespread. Since early this week, winds have blown from most directions. This morning they were blowing from the SW and W but will shift back to NW later today. For these reasons, watch for and avoid any areas with wind deposited snow. |
type | aspect/elevation | characteristics |
---|
LIKELIHOOD
LIKELY
UNLIKELY
SIZE
LARGE
SMALL
TREND
INCREASING DANGER
SAME
DECREASING DANGER
|
description
In many places the snowpack is getting deeper and stronger. There are some faceted layers in the upper 2-3 feet of the snowpack. The weakest is a spotty layer of facets (and maybe some surface hoar like Trent found in Broads Fork) buried under new snow from this weekend and this week. This layer should be mainly a problem where it is capped by a wind slab. Fortunately, you can dig into the snowpack a few feet deep and quickly look for and assess these layers. Facets near the ground cause the deep slab avalanche problem. They produced Sunday's fatal avalanche in a place where the snowpack was 2.6 feet deep and a similar avalanche in No Name bowl on Tuesday. While these avalanches are several days old, this type of problem persists for a long time and doesn't go away as quickly as we'd like. It's a tough problem to forecast for and manage in the backcountry. Regardless of the danger rating, what we want to see is an extended period of time without any reports of avalanches breaking at the ground. Until then, upper elevation slopes facing W through N through E should be assumed guilty. |
weather Cloudy skies today will bring a few more inches of snow. Unfortunately temperatures will struggle to reach the 20s F and winds will continue blowing 15 mph with gust of 20-30 mph. They will shift to the NW later today. |
general announcements
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Advisory Hotline: (888) 999-4019 | Contact Information