Avalanche Advisory
Advisory: Salt Lake Area Mountains Issued by Drew Hardesty for Wednesday - March 29, 2017 - 6:01am
bottom line

By mid to late morning, the danger will rise toward CONSIDERABLE for wet loose and perhaps wet slab avalanches on east, then south, then westerly aspects. Northeast and northwest aspects will also be susceptible to sun and heating. Wet avalanche activity is a certainty and I expect to see decent wet debris piles beneath steep sustained terrain features as the wet avalanches run not fast but far as they entrain all the snow down to the underlying melt-freeze crusts. Isolated pockets of wind slab may still be sensitive to human weight or cornice fall in steep upper elevation terrain.




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current conditions

Skies are mostly clear with mountain temps in the upper teens to low 20s. Winds remain northerly, blowing 15-20mph with gusts to 25 along the high ridgelines. Sun and heating put the hurt on all aspects and elevations but high north yesterday and you'll find breakable crusts across the landscape prior to the the morning thaw. High true north holds the last vestiges of soft snow although wind damage and pockets of hard wind slab have damaged much of what's left.

Still, for the aesthete, it was hard not to be taken by the spines of rime on the trees. Early Monday's clouds of super-cooled water droplets gave the tree branches a look not unlike that of cholla or ocotillo found in the Mojave. This morning, you might even find hints of surface hoar across the landscape before it decays from sun and wind.

recent activity

Yesterday's activity is derived from the moderate to strong northerly winds and the irrepressible late March sun and heating. Thanks - as always - for your excellent reports and observations from the backcountry.

  • An experienced party backed off their intended objective after collapsing a hard wind drift, seeing shooting cracks, and remotely triggering not one but two hard wind slabs roughly a foot deep and 100' wide in upper Red Pine of LCC. These on steep cross-loaded northeast facing slopes at roughly 10.300'.
  • One skier triggered and then was caught and carried in a steep cross-loaded chute off the backside of Clayton Peak in the Brighton periphery. The wind pocket - east facing at 10,500' - measured 8" deep and 70' wide, running 300' down the slope.
  • Ski area explosive and ski cuts produced wind slabs 6-24" deep.
  • Backcountry skiers triggered shallow wet sluffs and wet slabs that initially looked benign but left impressive debris piles in their wake. A good observation from Silver Fork can be found here. Similarly, Paige's IG video below from Logan yesterday well captures the situation below.
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

Although there was some wet activity yesterday, there was just enough wind and cloud cover to keep the entire snowpack from unraveling. We won't be afforded such mitigating factors today. With full sun and rapidly rising temps, wet sluffs and slabs will be likely on a variety of aspects and elevations.

Avoid traveling in steep sunny terrain where the snow surface becomes wet and unstable. There's no secret here: look for the tell-tale signs of wet snow instability: pinwheels, rollerballs, natural sluffs, wet unsupportable snow.

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

Isolated pockets of lingering wind slab may still be triggered in the high alpine and in the open exposed bowls in the upper elevations. (Many steep northerly starting zones were scoured, but no need to split hairs on the rose above.) Shooting cracks, audible collapsing, and that tactile feel of moving from soft turnable snow to stop-you-in-your tracks ... these are all red to yellow signs for caution. In the photo below, you can see the crack and the distant avalanche below (pc Gleich)
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

We're sounding like a broken record, but cornices and glide cracks should be considered significant objective hazards that should be avoided with care.

weather

We'll have mostly sunny skies with mountain temperatures rising to the upper 40s at 8500' and near 30°F at 10,000'. Winds will be northerly at 10-15mph. We should see some high clouds on the horizon in the afternoon signaling the advance of a large low pressure system that moves in tomorrow through early Saturday. Closed Low pressure systems are often accompanied with great uncertainty for precipitation totals, but I'd hedge with 5-10" by early Saturday. The insult will be in the form of strong easterly winds Friday into Saturday. 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.

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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 occur