Avalanche Advisory
Advisory: Salt Lake Area Mountains Issued by Evelyn Lees for Monday - April 3, 2017 - 6:12am
bottom line

The avalanche danger is LOW today, though small avalanches can still be triggered in isolated terrain.

  • Avoid the small hard wind drifts on steep slopes at the upper elevations
  • Minimize travel time below the large cornices and old glide cracks.
  • In steep terrain, a slip on the icy hard snow could send you for a long, dangerous ride.
special announcement

Thanks for everyone that donated to organizations that make living in Utah a better place during yesterday's Love Utah Give Utah. We here at the Utah Avalanche Center gratefully appreciate the support we receive from this amazing community.
current conditions

If there was a storm, I blinked and missed it…accumulations yesterday were a trace to 2”, with the rain/snow line above 7,000’ at times. Temperatures have been dropping steadily overnight, and are in the teens and to mid twenties this morning. Winds are from the northwest, averaging 10 to 15 mph, with the 11,000’ peaks averaging 30 mph at times.

While the hard snow surfaces make for fast travel, they are icy enough to make travel dangerous on steep slopes, with potentially knee twisting breakable crusts mixed in.

There's the surface crust - breakable in places. Primrose Cirque, Provo area mountains, Tyler Falk photo.
recent activity

No avalanche activity reported from yesterday.
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

Wind slabs: hard, shallow wind drifts may be scattered along the high ridge lines this morning, created by the overnight northwesterly winds. It is a matter of terrain – if one cracks out beneath you on a steep slope, knocking you off balance, it’s possible to go for a long ride down an icy slope or get sent over a cliff.

Cornices: The huge cornices can still fail with the additional weight of a person. Stay well back from their edges, and avoid travel below them.

Slide for life: If you plan to travel in steep, icy terrain, have a way to prevent a slide for life from happening. Whippets, mountaineering axe, crampons and/or using a rope to belay are safety measures that can help prevent an accident.

weather

Northern Utah is sandwiched between storms to the north and south today, producing partly to mostly cloudy skies, with a few snow flurries possible. As cold air filters in, 10,000’ temperatures will cool into to the mid teens today and down near 10 degrees by tomorrow morning. Expect the northwesterly winds to average 10 to 15 mph in most terrain, with the highest peaks averaging to 30 mph, with gusts to 40 mph at times.

A similar cool, partly cloudy day tomorrow will be followed by a warming trend on Wednesday and Thursday. Friday, expect increasing winds ahead of a cold storm projected for the weekend.

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 occur