A MODERATE avalanche danger still exists for triggering a wind slab or a cornice in the upper elevation terrain. MODERATE means human triggered avalanches are possible. Most importantly, keep in mind that the danger for wet avalanches will be on the rise and could reach CONSIDERABLE if things get warm enough. If natural wet activity does occur the slides have a potential to be quite large. Stay clear of sunny runnout zones as things heat up. Out of wind affected terrain, the majority of the terrain has a LOW danger this morning.

It was a great day to get into the mountains on Friday with increasing snow stability and great riding conditions. Temperatures have dropped back into the teens at many locations overnight and there are light winds from the west northwest except along the most exposed locations where there are a few gusts into the 40s.

While most people, including myself, found the newest snow to be quite stable in most locations, there were two pockets reported of skier triggered slabs. One was 4 to 8” deep on a steep mid slope rollover in Mineral Fork and one was up to a foot deep on another very steep easterly facing slope in Mill B South. It sounds as if both were the result of a period of winds stirring up the surface snow. Most other people found the recent drifts to be stubborn and tickled a number of them without incident. As far as wet activity, there was very little as the cold air mass and scattered clouds won out over the direct solar radiation. There were a couple of heat initiated avalanches that did spill onto the Big Cottonwood Highway from steep road banks that were large enough to get a plow out to clear them. Higher in elevation there wasn’t even much rollerball activity.

We’ll have scattered clouds again today with temperatures a little warmer getting into the mid to upper 30s at 8000 feet and around 30 along the ridges. We’ll have light to moderate northwest wind speeds with some stronger gusts at the most exposed locations. Another storm is expected for later on Sunday which could produce another good shot of snow in northwest flow.

Wasatch Powderbird Guides were in Cardiff, Days, Silver, American Fork. They’ll be in Mineral, Cardiff, Days, Silver, Grizzly, Lambs, Sessions, American Fork, Cascade. Check their operations planning page is here.

Our web site is now formatted for iPhone. You can also download a free iPhone application from Canyon Sports to display the Bottom Line. Search for Utah Avalanche on the Apple's iPhone Apps page or in iTunes.

Beacon training parks are up and running! There is one at Snowbasin, one on the Park City side at the top of Canyon’s gondola toward the Tombstone lift, one in Little Cottonwood near the Snowbird parking structure on the bypass road, and in Big Cottonwood a training park is at the west end of Solitude's lower parking lot.

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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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Your snow and avalanche observations can save someone’s life. Please let us know what you're seeing by leaving a message at (801) 524-5304 or 1-800-662-4140, or email us at uac@utahavalanchecenter.org. (Fax 801-524-6301).

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.

I will update this advisory by 7:30 tomorrow morning.