Avalanche Advisory
Advisory: Skyline Area Mountains Issued by Brett Kobernik for Friday - January 31, 2014 - 8:08pm
bottom line

There is a CONSIDERABLE avalanche danger for Saturday and Sunday. Human triggered avalanches are likely on west, north and east facing slopes approaching 35 degrees or steeper. We need to let the new snow settle and the old snow adjust to the weight of the new snow before getting onto steep slopes.
current conditions

Yes!!! Nice shot of snow for the Skyline over the last couple of days. The northern portion of the Skyline has about 10-12" of settled storm snow since Wednesday containing 1 to 2 inches of water. There was not much wind involved with this storm. We did notice a few moderate speed gusts late Friday afternoon while above 10,000'. Temperatures are dropping from the 20s into the teens Friday night.

The new snow made travel on snowmachines difficult. Actually, the very weak unconsolidated old snow is the problem. Once you punch through the new snow into old weak sugary snow you are pretty deep into it. Snowmobile tracks punching into weak sugar is a huge red flag to avalanche instability.

Below are a couple of observations from Friday. Thanks Darce and Steve!!

GE Hill and Electric Lake area

Spring City Canyon
recent activity

No avalanche activity was reported over the last week. We did not note any natural activity from the storm but visibility was not the best and travel was fairly difficult not allowing us to check out a whole lot of terrain.
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

We experienced lots of collapsing Friday when we walked around on skis. The type of collapsing that makes you pucker even when you're on low angle slopes. The Skyline has some of the weakest snow I've seen at this time of the season in years. Any new snow load from a storm is suspect. While this was a good storm, it wasn't huge. Absence of natural activity may lure a person into thinking the avalanche danger is not present. Steep slopes are not safe right now. A poor snowpack structure with a decent new load of snow trumps everything. We will be playing on low angle slopes through the weekend.

Winds have been unusually light and look like they won't get that strong through the weekend. However, keep in mind that any increase in wind speed will drift the low density snow and dramatically increase the avalanche danger on lee slopes.
weather

We'll see mostly cloudy skies on Saturday with highs in the teens. We may see a few snow showers. No significant accumulation is expected. Ridgetop winds will be from the northwest and moderate in speed. Highs will be in the teens. Sunday looks like a nicer day with slightly warmer temperatures and only partly cloudy skies. Northwest winds again look moderate in speed.
general announcements

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The information in this advisory is from the US Forest Service which is solely responsible for its content. This advisory describes general avalanche conditions and local variations always occur.

This advisory will be updated by 7:00 AM Saturday, February 8th, 2014.