Avalanche Advisory
Advisory: Salt Lake Area Mountains Issued by Trent Meisenheimer for Sunday - March 12, 2017 - 5:26am
bottom line

The avalanche danger is LOW this morning on all aspects and elevations. However, if the sun comes out in the afternoon and the wind speeds decrease, the avalanche danger will quickly rise to MODERATE on all sunny aspects for wet loose avalanches.

  • Slide for life conditions are a serious threat and only experienced backcountry travelers should be crawling on ridges and peaks today. Bring your mountaineering tools and crampons if you're heading for any mountain summit.
  • Cornices are large and may break at any time. Give these giant whales a wide berth.



special announcement

Spring Special: We have a few donated Snowbird, Snowbasin, Solitude, and Brighton discount lift tickets left and have just lowered the price. Ski a day and benefit the Utah Avalanche Center! Order here.

Guest blogger Tom Diegel follows up with part 2 of The Little Things (that might keep you alive).

Check out Part 1 as well for a good discussion about avalanche transceivers.
current conditions

This morning under partly cloudy skies, temperatures are still on the warm side. Most upper elevation stations are hovering around freezing - 32 degrees.. Mid canyon temperatures are in the mid to low thirties. With clear skies overnight many stations dipped just under 32 degrees, and the snow surface will be crusted this morning. Westerly winds picked up around 8:00 pm last night and are currently blowing 25 mph with gusts into the 40's at 10,000' feet in elevation. Lower canyon stations are reporting speeds of 15-20 mph with gusts into the upper 20's.

I don't think the south facing slopes will soften enough today for good corn conditions due to the clouds, wind and cooling temperatures. There are scraps of soft settled powder on the highest due north facing slopes.

recent activity

Wet loose avalanches occurred predictably yesterday as warm temperatures and sunshine heated the snow surface.

Video of a wet avalanche that happened yesterday during the heat of the day.

Avalanche Problem 1
type aspect/elevation characteristics
LIKELIHOOD
LIKELY
UNLIKELY
SIZE
LARGE
SMALL
TREND
INCREASING DANGER
SAME
DECREASING DANGER
over the next 12 hours
description

This morning the wind, clouds and cooler temperatures should keep the snow surfaces crusted over - keeping our wet loose avalanche problem at bay. However, if the forecast is wrong and the March sun intensifies expect rapidly changing avalanche conditions on the sunny aspects. This time of year a south facing slope can be perfectly safe and in a matter of an hour it can become unstable.

The key to avoiding these types of avalanches is timing. Most days the cycle for wet snow goes like this:

  1. The day starts with hard, refrozen snow and poor riding conditions
  2. Depending on aspect, the snow surface warms and riding conditions improve.
  3. As the snow surface gets wetter and the day heats up, riding conditions deteriorate and the threat of wet avalanches rises.

The timing of this cycle varies by slope through the day with east aspects experiencing it first and west aspects experiencing it last. Loose wet avalanches can occur on northerly aspects as well at low elevations or near rock bands and cliffs.
Avalanche Problem 2
type aspect/elevation characteristics
LIKELIHOOD
LIKELY
UNLIKELY
SIZE
LARGE
SMALL
TREND
INCREASING DANGER
SAME
DECREASING DANGER
over the next 24 hours
description

With so much snow this year, winds have formed giant cornices. When and where they break is hard to predict. The best strategy is to avoid being on top of or beneath them. Traveling beneath them is possible but move quickly to limit your exposure.

The snowpack slowly creeps downhill and glide cracks open where the snow rests on a smooth ground surface like big rock slabs. At unpredictable times, a glide avalanche can occur. Seeing these glide cracks is the only indication these avalanches are possible. As with cornices, the best risk management strategy is to avoid being under these places. Glide avalanches mostly occur in the Broads Fork, Stairs Gulch, and Mill B South drainages of Big Cottonwood Canyon
weather

Yesterday's bump in wind speeds ushered in a very weak cold front this morning. By the time many of you will read this the bulk of the storm will have already passed. High clouds will continue to stream overhead as the northwest winds continue to blow for much of the day. Temperatures will cool slightly today and this evening leading to a solid refreeze of the snow pack. High pressure quickly builds back in on Monday and the blue bird will sing again.

general announcements

Remember your information can save lives. If you see anything we should know about, please help us out by submitting snow and avalanche conditions. You can also call us at 801-524-5304, email by clicking HERE, or include #utavy in your tweet or Instagram.

To get help in an emergency (to request a rescue) in the Wasatch, call 911. Be prepared to give your GPS coordinates or the run name. Dispatchers have a copy of the Wasatch Backcountry Ski map.

Backcountry Emergencies. It outlines your step-by-step method in the event of a winter backcountry incident.

If you trigger an avalanche in the backcountry, but no one is hurt and you do not need assistance, please notify the nearest ski area dispatch to avoid a needless response by rescue teams. Thanks.

EMAIL ADVISORY If you would like to get the daily advisory by email you will need to subscribe here.

DAWN PATROL Hotline updated daily by 5-530am - 888-999-4019 option 8.

TWITTER Updates for your mobile phone - DETAILS

UDOT canyon closures: LINK TO UDOT, or on Twitter, follow @UDOTavy, @CanyonAlerts or @AltaCentral

Utah Avalanche Center mobile app - Get your advisory on your iPhone along with great navigation and rescue tools.

Powderbird Helicopter Skiing - Blog/itinerary for the day

Lost or Found something in the backcountry? - http://nolofo.com/

Ski Utah mobile snow updates

To those skinning uphill at resorts: it is critical to know the resort policy on uphill travel. You can see the uphill travel policy for each resort here.

Benefit the Utah Avalanche Center when you shop from Backcountry.com or REI: Click this link for Backcountry.com or this link to REI, shop, and they will donate a percent of your purchase price to the UAC. Both offer free shipping (with some conditions) so this costs you nothing!

Benefit the Utah Avalanche Center when you buy or sell on ebay - set the Utah Avalanche Center as a favorite non-profit in your ebay account here and click on ebay gives when you buy or sell. You can choose to have your seller fees donated to the UAC, which doesn't cost you a penny.

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