Avalanche Advisory
Advisory: Salt Lake Area Mountains Issued by Greg Gagne for Friday - April 8, 2016 - 5:14am
bottom line

The avalanche hazard is LOW this morning, and may rise to MODERATE as the day heats up with loose, wet snow avalanches possible.




special announcement

End of the season: Sunday, April 10th, will be our last regular early morning up date for the 2015-2016 winter season. We will continue to do weather-dependent intermittent updates through the month of April, and continue to post your observations on a daily basis. Your observations will become increasingly important to the backcountry community.

On April 8-9 the Adventure Gear Expo, Utah’s largest interactive adventure festival and outdoor gear sale for the public, will be at the South Town Expo Center in Sandy highlighting 100+ local and national retailers, manufacturers and non-profits in active outdoor sports, outdoor photography and adventure travel. If you buy tickets online using the promo code GOUAC, you will get a $2 discount and they will donate $2 to the UAC.

On a personal note, although I may provide occasional intermittent advisories through the end of April, this will be my last regular advisory of the season. The support I have received from the forecasters and leadership team of the UAC has been overwhelming. I especially appreciate the support from all of you - the community of backcountry travelers - that make this remarkable little mountain range quite a special place. It is my sincere hope that over the past two months I have begun to earn your trust. My sincere thanks. -- Greg Gagne
current conditions

It's a warm morning with temperatures in the mid 30's F to low 40's F. Winds are out of the east/southeast and are generally light, with some gusts blowing in the 20's mph at upper elevations.

Even though temperatures are above freeezing this morning, I am expecting a shallow refreeze of the snow surface due to the clear skies.

Snow surfaces should be mostly supportable this morning, but soften rapidly. Yesterday east aspects began to soften at about 9:30 am, and today I am expecting that to occur even earlier. The shallow refreeze will also mean snow surfaces will become unsupportable more quickly, so any period of soft, supportable snow isn't likely to last that long.
recent activity

Very quiet day on Thursday. The few observations from the backcountry indicated a stable snowpack and no avalanche activity was reported from the resorts.

However, we received a report of a natural glide avalanche in Stairs Gulch that occurred in the past 24-48 hours. This was a large avalanche (5' deep, 150' wide, running 1000') on a west/northwest aspect at about 9500'. We also received an observation from Big Cottonwood Canyon that noted several recent glide cracks in both Broads Fork and Stairs Gulch, and a recent glide avalanche in Broads Fork that covered older tracks at the bottom of the classic run Bonkers. [Photo: Primomo]
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 avalanche hazard is Low this morning, and may rise to Moderate as the day heats up with loose, wet snow avalanches possible. A pretty simple strategy for avoiding trouble today is to follow the sun, working aspects from east to south to west. Once the snow surface becomes wet and unsupportable, get off of and out from underneath any steep slopes.​ Timing is everything, and I am expecting any period of soft and supportable snow will be over by late morning on all aspects.

Although such travel is not currently recommended, for those venturing into the alpine basins of Broads Fork, Stairs Gulch, and Mill B South, be sure to make very conservative travel decisions and avoid avalanche runout zones as this terrain has seen an increase in recent activity of glide cracks and glide avalanches. Glide avalanches are a very tricky and dangerous business, and the usual protocol of frozen snow surface = safe travel does not apply to glide avalanches. For those wanting to learn more, retired UAC director Bruce Tremper wrote a nice summary of glide avalanches.

I also noticed several sagging cornices yesterday, and these may become more reactive as we continue to heat up.
weather

Temperatures will rise to the mid and upper 50's F. at 8500', and low to mid 40's F. at 10500'. Winds will be generally light and out of the east and southeast with gusts in the teens. Skies will become partly cloudy as a weak storm system works its way into Utah. We are expecting unsettled weather over the next week, with spotty rain and snow showers beginning on Saturday. With such a mild airmass in place, snow levels will be high.
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.