It's 22°F this morning at the Tony Grove Lake Snotel at 8400', and with 34" of total snow, the station reports only 62% of average SWE. It's 16°F on Logan Peak, and the 9700' CSI weather station reports increasing southwest wind, averaging 36 mph and gusting close to 50 mph at 0600.
Despite a widespread rime-crust in the Bear River Range, yesterday's very strong east winds found some snow to drift around, especially on the western slopes of the Bear River and Wellsville Ranges. It formed stiff drifts on weak snow at mid and upper elevations, and some may be found in unusual or unexpected places. Upper elevation snow is wind-jacked and crusty, with satstugi, wind board, thick rock-hard drifts, and a widespread brittle translucent rime-crust from last weak, now capped by an angry inch or two of fresher snow in sheltered terrain. The snow pack is generally quite shallow in the Logan Zone, and we have a serious problem with widespread very weak sugary snow and a dangerous persistent weak layer near the ground on most slopes. You sink all the way to the ground if you hop off your sled when you're off the beaten track, and breaking trail on skis is very difficult in untracked terrain because you sink way too deeply into loose sugary snow.
We'll see mostly sunny skies today, and 8500' high temperatures are expected to be around 26°F. Southwest winds will steadily blow along the ridges, and wind chill values will be as low as -13°F. Thankfully, it looks like a pattern change and finally some potential for significant snow this weekend starting late Friday, with around a foot of new snow possible by Saturday morning. More snow is likely early next week in a much more progressive weather pattern. Expect backcountry avalanche danger to rise dramatically across the region when significant snow accumulates because very weak preexisting snow is widespread and it plagues snow covered slopes at all elevations facing every direction.
No avalanches have been reported in the Logan Zone since the first week of 2021, when conditions were quite active.
- A local rider was completely buried in Steep Hollow on 1-8-2021. Thankfully, he was rescued in time by his riding partners. Our accident report shows the details.. HERE
- In early January there were several large remotely triggered avalanches in the Logan Zone, all triggered by sledders or snow bikers, and luckily from a distance. See the avalanche list HERE.
