Avalanche Advisory
Advisory: Ogden Area Mountains Issued by Bruce Tremper for Friday - December 12, 2014 - 7:01am
bottom line

Avoid all slopes steeper than about 30 degrees with recent deposits of wind drifted snow. They will look smooth and rounded and often sound hollow or feel "slabby." there is a MODERATE danger of human triggered avalanches on any slope with recent wind deposits. You can find safer terrain on wind eroded slopes or all slopes less steep than 30 degrees including locally-connected terrain.
special announcement

Coming Soon! - The Utah Avalanche Center is planning to offer a few stand-alone Companion Rescue Workshops this winter. Each workshop will be roughly 3-3.5 hours long and will provide key beacon, probing, and shoveling strategies for companion rescue. In the last couple of years alone, we've seen upwards of 6 full burials and live recoveries executed by members of their own party.

current conditions

It was a very warm, cloudy and windy day yesterday and you can expect another one today with even more wind. The snow surface is a mixed bag of very weak, faceted snow and surface hoar on shady aspects, sun crusts on sunny aspects and wind damaged snow in wind-exposed terrain. Right now, it looks something like this: Click on the photo to see my more complete blog Weekend Avalanche Preview.


recent activity

A skier took a ride in a wind slab yesterday in Mineral Fork, in the Salt Lake area mountains on a recently wind loaded slope (see the complete report here). It broke just 1-3 inches deep but then stepped down to a deeper weak layer of depth hoar near the ground, creating a larger avalanche about 1 1/2 feet deep. He was able to dig into the bed surface and not be carried down farther.


Avalanche Problem 1
type aspect/elevation characteristics
LIKELIHOOD
LIKELY
UNLIKELY
SIZE
LARGE
SMALL
TREND
INCREASING DANGER
SAME
DECREASING DANGER
over the next 24 hours
description

With continued strong wind today, you will likely see more localized wind deposits. Remember that on many slopes, the wind has deposited these dense, heavy slabs on top of very weak faceted snow and surface hoar that was on the surface before the wind started so they will be extra-sensitive and tricky. Avoid any slope steeper than 30 degrees with recent deposits of wind drifted snow, which will look smooth and rounded and often feel "slabby" (hard snow on top of soft snow) or sound hollow. You will likely see them in a pattern like this: Click on the image for a more detailed blog in the Weekend Avalanche Preview.

Check out a great photo of the wind yesterday by Johnathan Spitzer in the Salt Lake area mountains.
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

On the southerly facing slopes, the sun destroyed most of the faceted snow and surface hoar so the wind will deposit wind slabs on a sun crust, which will behave more like garden variety wind slabs and not be as tricky as the other aspects where wind slabs will slide on persistent weak layers.
weather

Unfortunately, we have a huff-and-puff-and-not-much-fluff storm arriving tonight. The storm is pounding California hard but as it arrives in Utah, the storm is "splitting" as we call it, meaning most of the energy is going both north and south of us--mostly south. As it gets stretched apart, we get left with the dregs in the middle. Today ridge top winds increase into mid day and blow from the south 40 gusting to 60. With strong winds they will likely dig down to lower elevations as well and affect all slopes.

Snow should begin tonight and bring us a mighty 2-5 inches overnight with a few more dribs and drabs on Saturday. The wind should die down as the cold front arrives tonight.

We'll update our Mountain Weather forecast by noon or so each day.
general announcements

Remember your information can save lives. If you see anything we should know about, please participate in the creation of our own community avalanche advisory 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.

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 and Park City – Alta Central (801-742-2033), Canyons Resort Dispatch (435-615-3322)

Snowbasin Resort Dispatch (801-620-1017), Powder Mountain Dispatch (801-745-3772 x 123).

Sundance Dispatch (801-223-4150)

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

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

Wasatch Powderbird Guides Blog/Itinerary for the Day.  

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

Ski Utah mobile snow updates

Discount lift tickets will soon be available at Backcountry.com - Thanks to Ski Utah and the Utah Resorts.  All proceeds go towards paying for Utah Avalanche Center avalanche and mountain weather advisories.

To those skinning uphill at resorts:  it is your responsibility to know the resort policy on uphill travel.  You can see the uphill travel policy for each resort here. IMPORTANT: Before skinning or hiking at a resort under new snow conditions, check in with Ski Patrol.  Resorts can restrict or cut off access if incompatible with control and grooming operations.

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 exist.