Avalanche forecast

Skyline

Utah Avalanche Center
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Avalanche danger

  • Alpine
  • Treeline
  • Below treeline
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Highlights

There is a CONSIDERABLE avalanche danger in the upper elevation northwest through east facing slopes. We won't see natural avalanches today but human triggered avalanches are likely especially on steep upper elevation slopes near exposed ridgelines. It is time to start avoiding steep avalanche terrain.

AVALANCHE CONDITIONS WILL CONTINUE TO GET MORE DANGEROUS DURING UPCOMING STORMS.

Avalanche problems

  • Persistent Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    2

    By far our biggest concern is our weak base which includes the bottom half of our snowpack. The avalanche activity on Sunday is a red flag. We are just now starting to see hints of things to come. Avoid being on or below slopes that are steeper than 30 degrees on northwest through east facing mid and upper elevation terrain. We will continue to see avalanches breaking into this Persistent Weak Layer for quite a while to come.

Recent Activity

There was some natural avalanche activity on Sunday. It involved the new snow breaking down into older weak sugary faceted snow. I describe this activity as "pockety" right now. This is only a hint of things to come.

Blind Fork, Fairview Canyon, broke to the ground, photo: Magerl MORE DETAILS HERE

Skyline Summit near The Big Drift, broke to old snow faceted surface, MORE DETAILS HERE.

Snow and Weather

Current Conditions: The Skyline picked up another good shot of snow on Sunday bringing storm totals up to 14 to 18" since Saturday and 20 to 30 inches since Thursday. Most high elevation weather stations are reading around 40 inches total depth to the ground. The snowpack is almost completely unconsolidated from the surface to the ground in many areas. The top half is the new low density powder snow. The bottom half is old loose sugary facets. The best way to describe it is there's no base. Trail breaking on skis is difficult. Snowmachines trench deep into the pack. Check out this excellent backcountry observation from Chris Magerl who was in Fairview Canyon on Sunday: DETAILS HERE

Temperatures dropped into the single digits overnight and wind from the west northwest has stayed fairly light with moderate speed gusts along the higher more exposed ridges.

Mountain Weather: The tail end of the storm is moving through and we might see some light snowfall still this morning and maybe a little clearing later this PM. Temperatures stay in the single digits. Wind should stay in the light to moderate speed category blowing from the northwest. Tuesday looks partly cloudy and then it looks like we'll see a couple of periods of snow mid week. One early Wednesday morning and one early Thursday morning. It looks like we'll see some stronger wind with these next impulses. I think each one should produce a few inches with a total of 4 to 8 inches by Thursday.

Additional Info

SKYLINE AVALANCHES & OBSERVATIONS

CAMERAS & WEATHER STATIONS

INSTAGRAM: SKYLINE_AVALANCHE

FACEBOOK: SKYLINE AVALANCHE

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This forecast is from the U.S.D.A. Forest Service, which is solely responsible for its content. This forecast describes general avalanche conditions and local variations always occur.

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