Avalanche Advisory
Advisory: Salt Lake Area Mountains Issued by Drew Hardesty for Sunday - March 13, 2016 - 6:17am
bottom line

Most terrain has a LOW avalanche danger. Minor wet avalanches may still be possible on a variety of aspects and elevations and perhaps more pronounced on mid-elevation northerly terrain. Continue to give sagging cornices along the ridgelines a wide berth.

With a significant storm on the doorstep, it'll be "Game On" tomorrow through mid-week. Plan accordingly.




special announcement

The Utah Avalanche Center greatly values our longtime partnership with our world-class resorts and is blowing out the remaining donated lift tickets from Snowbird, Snowbasin, Sundance, and Nordic Valley with reduced prices. Every penny you spend benefits the Utah Avalanche Center.

Check out our Garage Sale! Chock full of sweet backcountry gear - you can find the goods on our Facebook page here.​
current conditions

Skies are partly cloudy this morning with light to moderate westerly winds along the ridgelines blowing 15-20mph with gusts to 25. Temps are in the mid to upper 20s at most locations. Exceptions include mid-elevations, particularly outside of the Cottonwoods where overnight lows are in the mid-30s.

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

At this point, minor wet avalanches, cornice fall, and the outlier glide release in the western drainages of Big Cottonwood Canyon are the concerns for today.

The good news is that unlike cold dry powder snow, the worst skiing and riding conditions dictate the wet avalanche hazard. If you're - as it was described yesterday - "trenching" through the wet snow, head for lower angle terrain. There's no cheese in the mousetrap today.

weather

A significant - these days - storm is on the doorstep. We'll have increasing clouds - perhaps a touch of precipitation today - and increasing southwest winds. Snow should begin in earnest overnight and throughout the day tomorrow. Accompanying west to northwest winds, however, are forecasted to be moderate to strong along the ridgelines tomorrow. The storm lingers into Tuesday and Wednesday where storm totals may reach 12-18", primarily focusing on the Cottonwoods and areas north. For today, 8000' and 10,000' temps will be in the low 40s and low 30s, respectively. West to southwest winds will increase from 15-20mph to 30mph tonight. Initial rain/snow lines may start at 7500' and work down to the benches and then valleys.

general announcements

Remember your information can save lives. If you see anything we should know about, please help us out 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.

To get help in an emergency (to request a rescue) in the Wasatch, call 911.  Be prepared to give your GPS coordinates or the run name. Dispatchers have a copy of the Wasatch Backcountry Ski map.

Backcountry Emergencies. It outlines your step-by-step method in the event of a winter backcountry incident.

If you trigger an avalanche in the backcountry, but no one is hurt and you do not need assistance, please notify the nearest ski area dispatch to avoid a needless response by rescue teams. Thanks.

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, or on Twitter, follow @UDOTavy, @CanyonAlerts or @AltaCentral

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

Powderbird Helicopter Skiing - Blog/itinerary for the day  

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

Ski Utah mobile snow updates

To those skinning uphill at resorts:  it is critical to know the resort policy on uphill travel.  You can see the uphill travel policy for each resort here. 

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.