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This piece written to us by longtime friend and backcountry skier John Climaco I spent Sunday skiing PCMR with my daughter, much of it trying to explain to her why I was so upset. Conditions in the resort were perfect and the sky was blue but ironically it was the view that gnawed at me all day. The Park City ridgeline, covered with a deep coating of fresh snow, was being devoured by a small army of riders seemingly oblivious to the considerable danger they were aggressively courting. Every steep shot south of Murdock Peak save for main Squaretop and No Name Bowl, was tracked. So …

Week in Review for Friday, February 20th - Thursday, February 26th, 2026 We look back at the key events from the previous week. Click HERE for archived forecasts. Summary: We start this week already rocked from two avalanche fatalities from Wednesday (Ant Knolls) and Thursday (Rock Garden area of the Brighton backcountry). A Special Avalanche Bulletin is issued Friday through the weekend, anticipating a dangerous mix of blue skies, excellent powder, and dangerous conditions. Tragically, the string continues, with two full burials in Butler Basin of BCC on Saturday (one injured, …

This WiR was co-authored by UAC Forecasters Nikki Champion & Brooke Maushund. Week in Review for Friday, February 13th - Thursday, Feb 19th, 2026 We look back at the key events from the previous week. Click HERE for archived forecasts. Summary: A weak snowpack structure gets a minor first load without too many obvious signs of instabilities, but all the red flags are there. A series of healthy storms arrive late Monday night, dropping close to 50” of new snow (4.7” H2O) by Thursday morning. An Avalanche WATCH is issues Monday through Tuesday, and is elevated to an …

Week in Review for Friday, February 6th - Thursday, February 12th, 2026 We look back at the key events from the previous week. Click HERE for archived forecasts. Summary: High and dry conditions prevail through the weekend with mountain temperatures again well above freezing. Backcountry parties trigger wet loose sluffs on solar aspects almost large enough to bury a person on Saturday in Big Cottonwood Canyon, but there’s little else to discuss. The much-anticipated weather pattern change is signalled by a cold front Monday evening. The avalanche danger oscillates between LOW …

Week in Review for Friday, January 30th - Thursday, February 5th, 2026 We look back at the key events from the previous week. Click HERE for archived forecasts. Summary: High and dry conditions prevail. The 2-3” that fell on Thursday, January 29th greatly improved the skiing and riding conditions, but this new snow soon fell prey to the workings of sun, wind, temperature, and diurnal recrystallization. The mid-week forecast (image below) shows not one but two blocking patterns setting up to swat away any potential storms. Avalanche activity includes human-triggered facet …

Utah – The Greatest...*Rain* on Earth?!? It was towards the end of the 2002/2003 winter when Utah Avalanche Center forecaster Evelyn Lees wrote that the Wasatch range was like “A cake decorated by a child, where they put frosting on top but they forgot the sides.” That winter was definitely a lean one, but there was more to the story. The UAC Annual Report from that year indicated that, “even though February, March and April ended up near average at upper elevations, very little low elevation snow fell. Although high elevation places like Alta ended up at 79 percent of …

Sunny skies and calm weather have a way of making the mountains feel quiet…as if nothing is going on. We can be lulled into thinking the snowpack is gaining strength and becoming more benign. But some of the most dangerous weak layers we deal with in Utah are born during these calm stretches — right at the snow surface. There are three common types of weak snow that form during periods of calm, cold, and clear weather: diurnally-formed near-surface facets, radiation recrystallized near-surface facets, and surface hoar. On their own, they don’t pose an immediate avalanche …