Salt Lake Avalanche Advisory

Forecaster: Brett Kobernik

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

Need a stocking stuffer?

Consider purchasing some ski area lift tickets here from our good friends at Backcountry.com in partnership with Ski Utah. All proceeds benefit the Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center.

Or give the gift of a donation to your favorite charity, the Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center.

BOTTOM LINE

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


Danger Rose Tutorial

Pockets of a CONSIDERABLE danger remain on mid and upper elevation northwest through northeast facing slopes steeper then around 35 degrees. The danger is a bit less on more westerly and easterly facing slopes. A MODERATE danger for fresh wind drifts exists along the ridges especially on southerly facing slopes.

CURRENT CONDITIONS

Temperatures dropped into the low single digits overnight and winds have continued to increase across the highest terrain gusting into the 40s from the northwest. Winds along the mid elevation ridges look quite pleasant however. Light snow continued on Wednesday with a storm total of around 7 inches in upper Little Cottonwood Canyon.

RECENT ACTIVITY

There were two unintentionally human triggered avalanches reported from Wednesday. The first was in the Willows of Big Cottonwood, northwest facing. The second was in Dutch Draw off the Park City Ridgeline, northeast facing. Both broke into old faceted snow and were up to 2 feet deep. In both the skier was able to get off the slab before they took a ride. It was the third skier on the slope that triggered the slide in Dutch Draw and it ran about 700 vertical feet. I'd like to personally thank everyone who has contacted us about avalanches that they've triggered. This is not always easy for people as some are worried how they will be judged by others. However, I often find that people who are quick to judge are not immune to making similar mistakes. It's more courageous to talk about your own mistakes then to point fingers. We try to provide a friendly and non judgmental place where people can share their experiences. Sometimes we get details wrong through 2nd or 3rd person translations and everyone has different perception. We do our best to get things accurate.


THREAT #1
WHERE PROBABILITY SIZE TREND
      Over the next 24 hours.

Moving on, soft slab avalanches breaking into old weak snow remains the focus. I see two ways to look at our persistent slab concern, and it's by user group. For beginners, intermediates, and for those who just don't like risk, things are simple; steep slopes with old snow may avalanche. Avoidance is the easiest mitigation. For the advanced users who are gleaning every piece of data to try to negotiate steeper slopes, things are more tricky. Evidence of old slides continues to get hidden by wind and newer snow. Some paths that have run have reloaded and run again. Stability and propagation tests show improvement but there are still reports of collapsing and continued avalanche activity. As always we try to give you objective information on the current conditions. It's your job to accurately assess what type of user you are, how much risk you're willing to accept and how you're going to use the info we provide. I'll add a little subjective info today as well. My personal pucker factor is somewhat elevated not allowing me to really get after it out there. It's my opinion that even with diligent assessment you could still trigger something.

THREAT #2
WHERE PROBABILITY SIZE TREND
      Over the next 12 hours.

A secondary concern for today is fresh wind slabs. The new snow on Wednesday was stable aside from areas where it had been drifted. These fresh drifts were somewhat sensitive but didn't produce any real problems that were reported. Some of these will be less sensitive today but you should pay attention especially at upper elevations where the wind continued overnight.

MOUNTAIN WEATHER

Our weather pattern is a depressing junk show with no storms on the horizon. For today we'll see clearing skies with ridgetop highs in the mid to upper teens. Winds will be a bit breezy along the higher elevations but should'nt be too bad along the mid elevation ridges. Temps drop back into the single digits tonight then we should see fairly similar weather on Christmas Day as today.

GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

Discount Lift tickets: Ski Utah, Backcountry.com, Alta, Deer Valley, Park City, The Canyons, Wolf Mountain, Snowbasin, Beaver Mountain, Brighton, Sundance, and Solitude have donated a limited number of tickets for sale at discounted prices.

For the Wasatch Powderbird Guides schedule go to their blog

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

Daily observations are frequently posted by 10 pm each evening.

You can get a free iPhone application from Canyon Sports to display the Bottom Line.

To get a daily avalanche advisory e-mail click HERE.

For a text only version click the upper left link under Search

For canyon closures call UDOT at (801) 975-4838

Send us your avalanche and snow observations. You can also call 801-524-5304 or 800-662-4140, or email to uac@utahavalanchecenter.org

Donate to your favorite non-profit – The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center. The UAC depends on contributions from users like you to support our work.

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.

Bruce Tremper will update this forecast on Friday morning. Thanks for calling.

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.