Uintas

In the wind zone, at and above treeline the avalanche danger is MODERATE. Human triggered avalanches are POSSIBLE on steep slopes with recent deposits of wind drifted snow, particularly those facing the north half of the compass, and especially those an easterly component to their aspect

Any avalanche that breaks into deeper buried weak layers near the ground will result in a deep, scary, and dangerous avalanche.

While less widespread and pockety in distribution, a MODERATE avalanche danger is also found on steep, wind drifted slopes at mid elevations.

If you're looking for LOW avalanche danger, simply head to lower elevation terrain or big open meadows with no steep terrain above or connected to where you're traveling.

Big thanks to Mike Poulsen and the great crew at Tri-City Performance for hosting last nights Avy Moto 101

Stay tuned for more details regarding our next Sled Avy 101 in February.

Yes... that's a big slide!

Yesterday, a very experienced avy forecasting team remotely triggered the avalanche in the image above while descending a lower angle, adjacent slope. Breaking 2'-4' deep and 400' wide, this slide was initiated from a distance, on an upper elevation southeast facing slope, broke to weak snow near the ground, and stacked up a tremendous amount of debris in the gully of the runout.

Now here's the curious as well as the spooky thing about this incident.... this is the 6th notable slide triggered on a southeast aspect which is quite unusual given the fact that we generally steer towards the sunny terrain when we're dealing with persistent weaknesses in the snowpack. However, a common theme we're seeing is this... nearly every big slide triggered since the New Years snow and wind event has had an easterly component to its aspect.

There's been no shortage of human triggered slides the past few days including a couple close calls, but fortunately everyone has come out on top. Please... let's keep it that way.

In the wake of yesterday's weak little storm, skies cleared during the day and remained cloudless overnight. Currently, temperatures are in the teens and northeasterly winds are light, blowing 10-20 mph along the high peaks. Last weeks big storm delivered 18" of snow. Low elevation terrain and sunny aspects took on heat the past few days and are crusted, but there's still plenty of cold, shallow snow on wind sheltered, shady slopes.

Above is hourly data from Chalk Creek (9,169') along with recent wind data from Windy Peak (10,662'). To view more regional weather stations click here.

A beautifully detailed pit submitted by JG who was in Weber Canyon yesterday, reveals some bad juju near our faceted layers of snow. More on his travels here.

High pressure builds over the region, bringing clearing skies, temperatures rising into the upper 30's, along with light northerly winds. Quiet weather is on tap through the weekend and then a few weak impulses slide through the region beginning early next week. Nothing big on tap, but likely enough new snow over the course of a few days for a shallow reset. Perhaps a colder, wetter system to round out the end of work week.

The information in this advisory expires 24 hours after the date and time posted, but will be updated by 7:00 AM Sunday January 13th, 2019.

If you're getting out and about, please let me know what you're seeing especially if you see or trigger and avalanche. I can be reached at [email protected] or 801-231-2170

It's also a good time to set up one of our very popular avalanche awareness classes. Reach out to me and I'll make it happen.

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.