Avalanche Advisory
Advisory: Salt Lake Area Mountains Issued by Mark Staples for Monday - February 6, 2017 - 6:27am
bottom line

The avalanche danger today is CONSIDERABLE at upper elevations where fresh wind slabs can easily be triggered. The danger is MODERATE at mid to lower elevations. Dig into the snow to look for weak layers that can cause persistent slab avalanches, and watch for loose, wet snow avalanches at the lowest elevations.
special announcement

Tomorrow, February 7 at the Sandy REI: Know Before You Go - a free avalanche awareness program. Not much science, no warnings to stay out of the mountains, no formulas to memorize. In 1 hour, you will see the destructive power of avalanches, understand when and why they happen, and how you can have fun in the mountains and avoid avalanches.

If you have time to kill, check out our recorded live Instagram digital fireside chat from Wednesday night. These fireside chats are informal discussions on the state of the snowpack and involve questions and comments from viewers. We hope to have more in the coming weeks.

current conditions

Strong southerly winds arrived late last night, and a trace to one inch of snow fell. This morning they are averaging 20-40 mph gusting to 50 mph from the S and SW. Temperatures are near freezing at 8000 feet with temperatures in the mid 20's F at higher elevations. Soft powder can still be found on shaded and sheltered terrain. Winds blasted the snow surface at higher elevations and the sun melted the snow surface on southerly aspects yesterday which is now refrozen. At low elevations the snow likely remains wet.
recent activity

Some wind slabs were triggered on Saturday. With increased winds overnight, there should be more wind slabs you can trigger today. Photo: M.White
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

Strong southerly winds have formed fresh wind slabs this morning which should be easy to trigger. With a little snow expected today and continued strong winds, fresh wind slabs should remain sensitive and become larger throughout the day.

Many ridgelines have massive cornices which will continue growing this week with more snow and more wind. These are unpredictable and have killed many experienced mountaineers. They often break further back than many expect. Avoid traveling near these monsters.
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

The persistent slab avalanche problem mostly exists on the northern end of the Park City ridgeline to Parleys Canyon. It is caused by either a buried layer of surface hoar or small faceted crystals on an ice crust. Fortunately, there's an easy way to know if this problem exists: dig 3 feet into the snow, look for a stripe in a clean pit wall, and do a quick extended column test. With some practice, this process should only take 5 minutes.

Just before dropping into a steep E facing bowl in the Uintas yesterday, my partners and I stopped to look for these layers. They produced unstable results in our tests (video), and we chose not to ride in that bowl. Later yesterday, I went to the head of Big Cottonwood Canyon near Guardsman Pass where I found a similar layer about 3 feet deep. Strong winds destroyed this layer before it was buried. I could not get it to break and would have felt comfortable riding in avalanche terrain but had to get home to watch the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history!
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

Some loose wet avalanches are possible at the lowest elevations where overnight temperatures were near 40 degrees F. Watch for these slides if any rain falls. Watch Toby's video about loose wet slides in Logan Canyon.
weather

Today freezing temperatures should remain near 8000 feet though the rain snow line should be closer to 6000 feet. Strong winds will continue from the SW blowing 20-30 mph. At the highest elevations, much stronger winds will blow with gusts over 70 mph. Snowfall today should only bring a few inches. Heavier snowfall will occur tonight with and additional 7-10 inches possible. The rain/snow line should rise to 7500 feet this evening and Tuesday and then drop tomorrow afternoon.
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.