Avalanche Advisory
Advisory: Logan Area Mountains Issued by Toby Weed for Wednesday - February 11, 2015 - 7:06am
bottom line

The snow is stable on most slopes, but heightened avalanche conditions and a MODERATE (level 2) danger exist in some drifted upper elevation terrain. Solar warming will create heightened wet avalanche conditions during the heat of midday, and loose wet avalanches are possible on slopes with saturated surface snow.

  • Evaluate the snow and terrain carefully.
  • Avoid steep drifted slopes and ridge-top cornices at upper elevations.
  • Depart early from steep sunny terrain, before the surface snow becomes saturated and slushy in the midday warmth.

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special announcement

Special thanks to Buttar's and ArcticCat for hooking us up with the light and powerful M8000. This machine will make our field days more fun, safe, and productive and will significantly boost our outreach and education efforts.

RESEARCH PROJECT ON UNDERSTANDING TRAVEL BEHAVIOR IN AVALANCHE TERRAIN NEEDS YOU!! Scientists from the Snow and Avalanche Lab at Montana State University are seeking more participants for their project examining decision making and travel in avalanche terrain. Their project aims to collect GPS location information (from your smartphone) and survey responses from backcountry skiers and riders to better understand what types of terrain are used, and how decisions are made. Their focus is on backcountry skiers and riders of all abilities and experience.

More information: If you want to participate, or learn more about their project aims, research questions and approaches, please visit their web page: www.montana.edu/snowscience/tracks or their companion site directed toward snowmobilers at: www.montana.edu/snowscience/sleds

From nearby Afton Wyoming on Feb 7, Honey Badger vs Avalanche via YouTube featured videos...... HERE

On that note, ***Check out UAC Logan's Practicing Companion Rescue video........HERE

current conditions

The Tony Grove Snotel reports about 5 inches of snow from Monday and Monday night and there's 72 inches of total snow containing 115% of average water for the date. It's 23 degrees this morning at the 8400' site. The UDOT Hwy 89 Logan Summit weather station reports 17 degrees this morning and light east winds winds currently and overnight. You can find nice shallow powder conditions at upper elevations and smooth dust-on-crust at mid elevations, but most lower elevation slopes, and the lower reaches of many trails are burned off and melted out.

An opportunity for realistic rescue practice in a sled triggered avalanche near Naomi Peak. (2-7-2015)
recent activity

There were over a dozen sled triggered avalanches in the Tony Grove and White Pine Canyon areas last week, and luckily nobody got hurt. The somewhat slow moving and "user friendly" avalanches were about 2 feet deep and some quite wide. The strengthening thin weak layer formed on the surface at the end of January, and the avalanches failed on top of a rime-crust from 1/24/15.

Most recent reported local activity: Observers reported a couple natural cornice-fall/wind-slab avalanches which occurred at upper elevations in the Tony Grove Area on Friday afternoon.

Last week's Sled Triggered Slides up at the Grove from 2/6/15.....HERE Avalanche on Mt. Magog's South Ridge, 2/5/15....HERE

Visit our Backcountry Observations Page for more local information and from across the state.

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

The snow is stable on most slopes, but triggered avalanches remain possible in some steep drifted upper elevation terrain today. Hard slabs might allow you to get out on them before releasing. You should be wary around terrain features like cliff bands, sub-ridges, and gullies where wind slabs may have formed, and continue to avoid drifted slopes steeper than about 30 degrees at upper elevations. Watch out for ridge-top cornices, which might break further back than you expect and could trigger avalanches on steep slopes below.

Avalanche Problem 2
type aspect/elevation characteristics
LIKELIHOOD
LIKELY
UNLIKELY
SIZE
LARGE
SMALL
TREND
INCREASING DANGER
SAME
DECREASING DANGER
over the next 10 hours
description

Loose wet avalanches involving saturated fresh surface snow are possible on steep sunny slopes during the warmth of midday.
weather

After the coldest night yet in February, it'll be warm and sunny in the mountains today, with temperatures increasing to around 40 degrees and east winds, diminishing to light and variable in the afternoon. Expect partly cloudy conditions tonight, with low temperatures around 27 degrees and light west-southwest wind. A strong high pressure system will keep the dry and un-seasonally warm weather around through the weekend, but a significant change is in store for early next week, with snow likely and a return to a more normal winter weather pattern, with a deep trough and colder air.

Check out our one-stop weather page........HERE

general announcements

You can now receive advisories by email for the Logan Zone.  Go here for details.

 Get your advisory on your iPhone along with great navigation and rescue tools, with our updated,  Utah Avalanche Center mobile app 

Discount lift tickets are now 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.

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.

***Please submit snow and avalanche observations from your ventures in the backcountry HERE. You can call us at 801-524-5304 or email HERE, or include #utavy in your Instagram or Tweet us @UAClogan. To report avalanche activity in the Logan Area or to contact the local avalanche forecaster call me, Toby, at 435-757-7578. 

I'll regularly update this advisory on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday mornings by about 7:30.   This advisory is produced by the U.S.D.A. Forest Service, which is solely responsible for its content. It describes only general avalanche conditions and local variations always exist.