Avalanche Advisory
Advisory: Salt Lake Area Mountains Issued by Trent Meisenheimer for Saturday - February 18, 2017 - 4:32am
bottom line

The avalanche danger is Moderate on slopes that are recently wind-loaded. This terrain includes all aspects at the upper elevations. Northerly facing terrain has weak faceted snow where these slabs will be more sensitive and could be triggered at a distance.

Otherwise there is a mostly Low danger where the primary avalanche concern is loose sluffs on steeper northerly aspects.
special announcement

Is your coffee still warm? if so, give Drew Hardesty's blog a read: A Companion Piece to #NothingBadHappened called Hindsight 20/40

current conditions

South winds picked up last night around the dinner hour and continue to blow this morning. Upper elevation wind speeds are 20-25 mph gusting into the 40's & 50's. Mid canyon anemometers are getting in on the action as well and recording speeds of 15-20 mph gusting into the 40's. Overnight a uniform 3" inches (0.25" h20) of new snow fell throughout the Wasatch range. Temperatures continue to be on the warmer side where mid to lower canyon trailhead temperatures are above freezing. 9000' temperatures are 27 degrees.

An excellent week in Review: By Greg Gagne found HERE.

recent activity

One backcountry party reported being very lucky in the Y-not couloir yesterday as wet avalanches came ripping down past them around noon hour read his observation HERE. No other significant avalanche activity was reported.

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

Today keep a keen eye out for fresh drifts of wind blown snow. The new snow overnight has fallen on a variety of different snow surfaces and will likely not bond well on, upper elevation north facing terrain where the snow was faceted, southerly sunny aspects that were crusted. Mid to lower elevations where the snow is damp it will bond well.

The biggest concern - will be the upper elevation wind loaded northerly facing terrain where wind drifted snow sits above faceted snow. Any new wind drifted snow will be reactive on those aspects and could be triggered from a distance.

Video from Thursday where athlete Andy Dorais found a small wind slab as he was skiing across the slope. I would expect these wind slabs to be a bit bigger today.

A post shared by Andy Dorais (@andydorais) on

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

Normal Caution. Remember that risk is inherent in mountain travel. Additional avalanche concerns for the backcountry includes the following:

  • Continued dry sluffing in the weak surface snow in the steep northerly terrain at the mid and upper elevations. Additionally, any new snow that falls during the day today will not bond well to the faceted snow found on most shady aspects, so sluffs will increase in size and likelihood during any period of snowfall. Ski cuts are effective mitigation tools for these.
  • Slide for life conditions do exist. There are many slick surfaces, now hidden just beneath the new snow.
  • Cornices loom large over many ridgelines - continue to give them a very wide berth.
  • Glide releases remain possible in Stairs, Broads, and pockets of Mill B South of Big Cottonwood Canyon.
weather

Today we will continue to have gusty south winds for much of the day with speeds in the 15-20 mph range across the mid elevation ridgelines. Upper elevation 10,000' and above will see speeds of 25-30 mph with gusts into the 60's. If we are lucky, we will pick up a trace to a couple inches of new snow today. Temperatures will remain warm with the rain snow line bobbing around 7000' in elevation. Upper elevation 10,000' temperatures will be in the mid 20's.

Tonight and tomorrow morning will be the best chance for snow as a quick system races through. Unfortunately as you can see in the picture below, the storm is rocketing towards Baja and splitting around us. Don't be too sad just yet! - there is still a chance of 6-10 inches of new snow possible by Monday.

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.