The
Utah Avalanche Center Home page is: http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/
(click on) Utah Avalanche Center in Logan for our home
page
Logan
Hello and good morning, this is Toby Weed
of the
Current
Conditions: The snow from Wednesday’s blizzard
brought relief to previously scratchy backcountry snow conditions. Accumulations were a bit spotty across the region,
but the Tony Grove Snotel reported picking up 8/10ths of an inch of water in a
bit less than a foot of new snow. Strong
winds came around from the east yesterday causing extensive drifting of the
light new snow in exposed terrain. The
winds diminished overnight and are now gently blowing from the north at the CSI
weather station on
Avalanche Conditions: Yesterday morning, an officer
from the Cache County Sheriff's Department reported a natural avalanche from
late Wednesday that stopped on the flats a few feet from the road near the
Green Canyon Gate. The wind slab avalanche on a northwest facing slope
ran on a smoothed-in path over 1000' vertical from a crown at around 6300' and
carried a pile of woody debris with it (photos).
Now old news, but also of
interest is a large hard slab avalanche on the Richmond Bench, which occurred sometime
after last week’s very strong southerly winds.
The large and destructive wind slab avalanche on a northwest facing
slope at about 5300’ in elevation stepped down to weak sugary snow or depth
hoar near the ground (photos).
Strong
easterly winds yesterday scoured the fresh snow from many of the more popular
slopes in the region and built stiff drifts in somewhat unusual places. These, for the most part, bonded fairly quickly
to the underlying old snow yesterday.
But some hard wind slabs formed-up on steep upper elevation slopes and
in avalanche starting zones with a slick rime-crust or weak frost crystals or
surface hoar. And some of these could
still be sensitive to your weight today.
Remember that hard slabs tend to be rather stubborn, meaning they might
allow you to get well out on them before releasing….Also, any avalanche could
well be long running and fast moving on
well smoothed-in and slick paths…
Loose,
wet avalanches will become possible on sunny slopes at mid and lower elevations
as the fresh snow becomes moist from solar warming.
Bottom Line: Today there’s a MODERATE danger in exposed terrain at upper
elevations, and you could trigger wind slab avalanches on some steep slopes in
the backcountry. You’ll find a LOW danger on most other slopes and in sheltered terrain. Solar warming will probably cause the danger
to rise to MODERATE, with wet avalanches possible on
sunny slopes at mid and lower elevations.
Avoid obvious drifts on steep slopes and use good snow assessment and
safe travel techniques to minimize your risk.
Mountain
Weather: The cut-off low responsible for Wednesday’s blizzard is moving through
southwestern
General Announcements:
This advisory will
expire in 24 hours from the posting time.
Check out the images page for photos of some of
last week’s avalanches.
Go to the Avalanche Encyclopedia if you have any questions about terms I use in the advisory.
I'm very interested to know
what you're seeing out there. Please e-mail observations to me at [email protected] or leave me a message
at 755-3638, especially if you see or trigger an avalanche in the backcountry.
We keep all observations confidential.
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.
