Avalanche Advisory
Advisory: Salt Lake Area Mountains Issued by Trent Meisenheimer for Sunday - February 19, 2017 - 4:50am
bottom line

The avalanche danger is Moderate on all mid and upper elevation slopes for wind slabs and storm snow avalanches. The biggest concern will be upper elevation northerly facing terrain where wind has deposited new snow over weak faceted snow, forming a slab. Wind slabs along upper elevation ridgelines will be more sensitive today and could be triggered from a distance.




special announcement

Waiting on touring partners to get ready? in the meantime give Drew Hardesty's blog a read: A Companion Piece to #NothingBadHappened called Hindsight 20/40

current conditions

Southerly winds continued to blow through the night and are currently spinning the 10,000' foot anemometers 15-20 mph gusting into the 40's. Lose some elevation and the wind speed relaxes to a more enjoyable speed of 10-15 mph with gusts into the 30's. Mountain temperatures are still on the warmer side with the rain snow/freezing line oscillating around 7000' feet in elevation. Upper elevation temperatures are in the 20's. Roughly 2-3" (0.2-0.4 h20) of new snow fell overnight. Slowly but surely we are starting to stack up the snow in the cottonwoods with 8-12" (0.5-1.5" h20) inches of new snow in the past 48hrs.

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

recent activity

Most of the backcountry travelers yesterday reported shallow sluffs and small wind slabs that failed within the new snow. However, one party in Bells Canyon triggered an avalanche that propagated 60' feet wide and up to 15" inches deep. This avalanche failed on the weak faceted snow from the last prolonged high pressure. Nobody caught.

Photo: Bells Canyon avalanche - Andrew Bentz, read is observation HERE.

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

As the southerly winds continue to drift and move the snow around you can expect to find fresh wind slabs off the lee side of ridgelines today. 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. Avoid rounded pillowy snow that looks wavy or sounds hollow like a drum.

Video of Greg Gagne showing some weak faceted snow underneath the new snow. Strong snow, over weak snow, is never good.

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

4-8" of new snow is expected throughout the day today. If the weather forecast comes together you'll want to shift your focus to all steep terrain including south facing and mid-elevation terrain where soft slabs over a foot deep could become reactive. Even out of the wind.

weather

This morning we will keep the gusty southerly winds around where they are likely to average 15-20 mph gusting into the 40's across the mountain ridgelines. Around the noon hour the winds will veer to the west as a frontal passage pushes through the mountains of northern Utah. Temperatures will cool slightly and the rain/snow should drop closer to 6000' feet before rising again on Monday. You can expect 4-8" of snow today and possibly more in places favored by a southwest flow.

There is talk on the street that a more organized colder system could drop into the state Tuesday evening through Wednesday day. Stay tuned.

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.