Alta and Snowbird resorts are closed to all touring and uphill traffic as they prepare to open for the season.

Little Cottonwood Canyon will have intermittent closures in the mid-canyon between 10 and 11am this morning.

Pockets of Considerable dot an otherwise MODERATE landscape in the northwest through east facing terrain above roughly 9500’. Natural avalanches are a thing of the past, but human triggered avalanches 1-2’ deep remain possible. Soft and hard slab avalanches may still be triggered at a distance (even above you) and are likely to propagate more widely than before. Traumatic injury in the threadbare coverage remains severe – it’s just as likely to get dragged into rocks, stumps, and trees as it is to be buried in a slide.

The danger is LOW on slopes less than 30 degrees in steepness with nothing steeper above.

The moist and breezy northwesterly flow is starting to lose some steam and dry out. Skies are mostly clear, temperatures are in the teens, and the winds are a more reasonable 15-20mph with gusts to 30. Should be a pleasant day in the hills. Yesterday’s stronger winds resulted in some wind damage and drifting, but creativity and tolerance should be enough to piece things together. Low angle protected terrain in the shady aspects should again be the ticket for today.

Few reports filtered in yesterday, though we did hear of continued collapsing of the weekend’s storm snow onto the old weaker snow beneath. Control work at the ski areas continues to produce avalanches 1-3’ deep in the steep upper elevation northerly through easterly terrain. Symptomatic of the snow structure, many of these slides went on to pull out pockets in adjacent terrain.

The accident reports can now be found under Current Conditions>Accidents

It’s a day of transition. We’ll have clear skies, light to moderate backing winds to the west, and 8000’ and 10,000’ temps in the upper 20s and teens, respectively. Ahead of what looks to be a potent, if somewhat short-lived, storm late Friday into Saturday, we can expect rapidly warming temperatures and escalating southwesterly winds tomorrow into Friday. The cold front crashes through by late afternoon and we can expect upwards of a foot of snow, with perhaps a bit more in areas favored by a northwest to westerly flow. The Lake Effect looks favorable at this time to add some to the snow totals – stay tuned.

If you trigger an avalanche in the backcountry - especially if you are adjacent to a ski area – please call the following teams to alert them to the slide and whether anyone is missing or not. Rescue teams can be exposed to significant hazard when responding to avalanches, and do not want to do so when unneeded. Thanks.

Salt Lake – Alta Central (801-742-2033)

Ogden – Snowbasin Patrol Dispatch (801-620-1017)

Provo – Sundance Patrol Dispatch (801-223-4150)

Dawn Patrol Forecast Hotline, updated by 05:30: 888-999-4019 option 8.

Daily observations are frequently posted by 10 pm each evening.

Subscribe to the daily avalanche advisory e-mail click HERE.

UDOT canyon closures UDOT at (801) 975-4838

You have the opportunity to participate in the creation of our own community avalanche advisory by submitting avalanche and snow observations. You can also call us at 801-524-5304 or 800-662-4140, or email by clicking HERE

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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.

We will update this forecast tomorrow morning. Thanks for calling.