Avalanche Advisory
Advisory: Salt Lake Area Mountains Issued by Mark Staples for Monday - February 13, 2017 - 7:04am
bottom line

The avalanche danger today is MODERATE. On southerly aspects, expect loose wet snow avalanches as the day warms. On other aspects with good powder, there are several problems to watch for and produced many shallow avalanches yesterday.

One problem that is not predictable is massive cornices found along ridgelines. Avoid being under or near these monsters which break in surprising places and further back that you'd expect.
special announcement

Wasatch Backcountry Skiing Weather: Friends of the UAC President Steve Achelis has done it again: check out his one-stop-shop page here.
current conditions

Temperatures are in the mid to low 20's F this morning. At lower elevation trail heads, temperatures are in the teens F. Light winds are blowing 5-10 mph from the NE.

Yesterday had gusty SE winds that drifted some snow, and high temperatures near 40 degrees F in many places.

With clear skies overnight and below freezing air temperatures, snow on southerly aspects should have an ice crust on top this morning. Shaded slopes still have nice soft powder.
recent activity

There were plenty of human triggered avalanches yesterday. Fortunately they were all less than a foot deep. Most were sluffs or point releases; however, some were soft slabs and wind slabs. Ski resorts also triggered shallow soft slab and wind slab avalanches. On southerly slopes there were natural, wet loose avalanches. A full list of avalanches is HERE.

Photo below shows two natural slides, a point release and a shallow soft slab typically of many other slides triggered yesterday. 10,000 feet yesterday in the backcountry behind Alta in Dry Fork. Photo - UAC

A few shallow slabs broke over fairly wide areas but only 6-10 inches deep. Photo - Jim M.
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

Wet loose slides occurred predictably with the first day of strong sunshine and warm temperatures yesterday. Overnight air temperatures in the 20's F and clear skies (which can cool the the snow even more than air temperatures) mean the snowpack should be refrozen this morning. The key to avoiding wet avalanches is timing. As the snow surface warms and melts, loose wet slides will start occurring but shouldn't be too big or surprising.

Glide avalanches can be large and unpredictable. These can occur any time, and have been most active in Broads Fork this month.
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

Now is a great time to get into the mountains and enjoy beautiful sunny weather and calm winds. The avalanche problems are mostly predictable. I would be a little weary of going into extreme terrain today where the consequences of even a small slide can be severe. Given the avalanche activity yesterday, it is worth waiting another day or two before riding in such extreme terrain.

Watch for these problems:

  • Lingering wind slabs from yesterday morning's gusty SE winds.
  • Soft storm slabs that may fail on a rime crust or old wet snow 6-12 inches deep.
  • Loose, dry snow sluffs. These have been surprisingly active over the last two days.
  • Avoid being under or anywhere near massive cornices which can break unpredictably
  • There may be a few persistent slab avalanches breaking on buried surface hoar mostly on low to mid elevation shady slopes at the northern end of the Park City ridge line to Parleys Canyon

One skier was almost carried over a rock band by an avalanche yesterday. See the photo below and read more here.
weather

Today will be a repeat of yesterday with light winds, sunny skies, and temperatuers warming to near 40 degrees F.
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.