Dangerous avalanche conditions persist in many Utah mountain locations. Human triggered avalanches are likely to almost certain on many steep slopes. These avalanches may be triggered from a distance and are likely to be very large and unsurvivable. People without expert level avalanche assessment and route finding skills should continue to avoid the backcountry.

The avalanche danger remains HIGH today, and human triggered avalanches are likely on many slopes of 30 degrees and steeper, in mid and upper elevation terrain of all aspects. Avalanches can be triggered from a distance - from below or from adjacent slopes to the side. We still are not recommending travel in avalanche terrain.

Temperatures have been on the rise over the last 24 hours and are generally around 20 degrees in many mountain locations. Gusty ridgetop winds from Saturday have slowed a bit only averaging in the 20s at the most exposed locations. A trace to a couple of inches of snow accumulated over the last 24 hours.

People are giving the mountains their due respect right now and not many human triggered avalanches were reported from Saturday. There was one significant slide that was most likely triggered remotely by a ski touring party as they were walking away from the bottom of Wills Hill in Willow Creek of Big Cottonwood canyon. They had avoided skiing the slope and it had not released at 3pm when they were leaving. One of our observers noted that it had avalanched by 3:30. It is very likely that the skiers initiated a collapse that triggered it while traversing on adjacent terrain.

Visibility on Saturday gave us glimpses of the natural avalanche cycle that occurred during the last storm. Some of the notable avalanches that were viewed on Saturday include Cardiac Ridge, High Ivory, the northwest aspect of Gobblers Knob that came out huge, and the northeast face of Little Water Peak which is a different slide then the accident from Friday.

More photos will be posted this morning.

We'll see partly to mostly cloudy skies today with light snow showers possible this morning. Temperatures will be in the mid 20s and ridgetop winds will be in the 5 to 15 mph range gusting into the 20s and 30s along the more exposed locations. Temperatures warm even more on Monday with a weak storm system that will move through Monday evening.

Wasatch Powderbird guides are starting operations – click here to go directly to their operations planning page.

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For the text-only advisory, 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).

The UAC depends on contributions from users like you to support our work.  To find out more about how you can support our efforts to continue providing the avalanche forecasting and education that you expect please visit our Friends page.

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 does not apply to ski areas or highways where avalanche control is normally done. The information in this advisory is from the U.S. Forest Service, which is solely responsible for its content.  This advisory describes general avalanche conditions and local variations always occur.

Bruce Tremper will update this advisory by 7:30am tomorrow.