SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center in Logan will present the 5th annual Pray for Snow benefit party at the Bullen Center on Main street in Logan, Friday, November 21st at 6:30. Proceeds will help support your local avalanche center right here in Logan. Hope to see you there.

BOTTOM LINE

Danger by aspect and elevation on slopes approaching 35° or steeper.
(click HERE for tomorrow's danger rating)

Danger Rose Tutorial

There's a LOW avalanche danger in the backcountry and avalanches are unlikely. This does not mean there's no danger at all, and you most definately want to follow safe backcountry travel protocols as a common practice.

CURRENT CONDITIONS

If you were trying to build the perfect base layer in the backcountry, you might dump warm water on the light preexisting snow and then deep freeze everything solid. Over an inch of rainfall fell on top of our young snowpack during the week and this turned the snow into concrete on most slopes. The exceptions we found were cream brulee crusts in the trees and fun smooth spring-in-November type conditions on low angled sunny slopes.

THREAT #1

WHERE

PROBABILITY

SIZE

TREND

Over the next 24 hours.

All the wind slabs I found were solidly welded in place by a substantial ice/rime crust. The crust ranged from a bit over an inch to around 4 inches thick. I was much more worried about holding an edge than about avalanches. The good thing is that you do not sink into the snow at all and all rocks that are now covered are likely to remain solidly covered for the season. This includes ridge-top terrain where winds often scour down to rock. The bad thing is that all the high elevation avalanche paths in the region are filled in and smoothed out. In other words, we now have a likely bed surface for avalanches to slide down. This is a key ingredient for slab avalanche formation.

MOUNTAIN WEATHER

A strong high pressure system will build over the region today and remain firmly entrenched through much of next week. Models suggest that this pattern will break down towards the end of the coming week.

GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

Free Avalanche Awareness Talks:

*November 19, Wednesday 7:00 pm, Butters Tractor, Tremonton……

For Snowmobilers

*November 20, Thursday 6:30 pm, Logan Ranger District Offices, 1500 E Hwy 89 Logan….

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.

This advisory provided by the USDA Forest Service, in partnership with:

The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center, Utah Division of State Parks and Recreation, Utah Division of Emergency Management, Salt Lake County, Salt Lake Unified Fire Authority and the friends of the La Sal Avalanche Center. See our Sponsors Page for a complete list.