UDOT in Big Cottonwood Canyon will have intermittent closures of the canyon today (TUESDAY) as they sight in their artillery. Avoid touring in Stairs' Gulch and the Kessler Peak area. You can always go to the web at www.udot.utah.gov/avalanche or call 801.975.4838 to get more information now and throughout the season.

What little snow exists in the Wasatch mountains is generally stable and the danger is Low.

UDOT in Big Cottonwood Canyon will have intermittent closures of the canyon today as they sight in their artillery. Avoid touring in Stairs' Gulch and the Kessler Peak area. You can always go to the web at www.udot.utah.gov/avalanche or call 801.975.4838 to get more information now and throughout the season.

The snowpack is old and worn out and in bad need of some fresh snow. Until then, there are a wide variety of snow surface conditions ranging from pine needles in the forest to various kinds of breakable sun and rain crusts at lower elevations to various kinds of wind crusts and recrystallized snow up high. The snow is generally not worth the effort unless you just want to get out for some fresh air. The total snow depth is only about a foot and a half deep on the north facing slopes above 10,000' in the Salt Lake area mountains and about six inches outside of there. Most of the south facing slopes have melted out or are close to it. If you are looking for skiing or boarding, all the Cottonwood Canyon resorts are open and the groomers are good.

No avalanche activity has been reported from the backcountry or the resorts for the past several days.

The weather is so depressing that Igenerally avoid looking at it. But Iforced myself... We have a poor excuse of a storm passing south of us for the next several days, which will bring us a few clouds but not much more. We may even see a seldom-seen snowflake tomorrow and on Thanksgiving but it shouldn't add up to more than a mighty inch or two. In the mean time, we should have variable clouds with daytime highs in the mid 40's and overnight lows in the mid 20's. Ridge top winds should remain light from the south. The extended forecast calls for a cold, northerly flow by the end of the weekend, which will make things cold and windy and--you guessed it--still no significant snow.

We are only doing afternoon and/or intermittent avalanche advisories until winter returns or the avalanche conditions change.

If you want to get this avalanche advisory e-mailed to you daily click HERE.

UDOT highway avalanche control work info can be found by calling (801) 975-4838. Our statewide toll free line is 1-888-999-4019 (early morning, option 8).

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If you’re getting out and see anything we should know about please let us know. You can leave a message at (801) 524-5304 or 1-800-662-4140, or email us at uac@utahavalanchecenter.org. (Fax 801-524-6301).

This advisory will be updated every few days or as conditions change.