Avalanche forecast

Salt Lake

Issued Mar 22, 2021valid to Mar 23, 2021Utah Avalanche Center

Avalanche danger

Alpine
Treeline
Below treeline

Out of date — this forecast expired 5 years ago. You’re viewing past conditions, not the current bulletin.

Highlights

The avalanche danger is MODERATE on all upper elevation steep slopes for triggering a new snow soft slab avalanche or a long and fast running dry loose avalanche. Human-triggered avalanches are possible.

Keep in mind that if it starts snowing harder than expected or the temperature quickly rises, the avalanche danger can spike rapidly. Be ready to alter your plans based on changing conditions.

Avalanche problems

Storm Slabs
N
NE
E
SE
S
SW
W
NW
Alpine
Treeline
Below treeline
Likelihood
Possible
Size
2
For today, there are three things to watch for:

Sluffing (dry loose avalanches) in steep, sustained terrain.

New snow soft slabs that could be 12 inches deep and up to 100 feet wide.

Warming from the sun. Currently, the temperatures are cold, and the clouds should move in this morning and keep warming at bay. However, it's spring, and things can change fast. Keep an eye on the sky and notice if the snow surface becomes wet. If you see rollerballs, it's time to move to shadier/colder terrain.

Remember to travel one at a time and work the terrain as you travel up and down, only exposing one person at a time to avalanche terrain. Terrain selection is the great equalizer that can either increase or decrease the consequence of an avalanche. Shovel shear tests, small test slopes, and a quick extended column test can help your stability assessments of the new snow. Slope cuts and small cornice drops will also be effective (make sure no one is below).

Special Announcement

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Recent Activity

Yesterday there were many reports of dry loose avalanches that happened both naturally as well as human triggered. These dry loose avalanches did run fast and far in steep, sustained terrain. There were two reports of soft slab avalanches that failed within the new snow yesterday as well. One was in steep terrain in Mineral Fork and was roughly 8 inches deep and 100 feet wide and it ran 600 vertical feet downhill on the old slick bed surface. The other was from Reynolds and was 8 inches deep by 40 feet wide. Both likely were triggered with a slope cut. Week in Review - highlighting significant snow and avalanche activity from this past week has been published.

Snow and Weather

Wow, this is Wasatch I remember! - yesterday was one of those days where people come for a weekend and stay for a lifetime. The weekend's storm produced right-side-up powder on all aspects and elevations, and there were plenty of smiles for miles. The sun did come through the clouds yesterday for a brief period and warmed some aspects and elevations, producing a small zipper crust. I found this crust didn't ruin the riding as you sliced right through it. Other aspects stayed cold and dry.

This morning the skies are clear, and the temperatures hover in the single digits to low teens across the board. Winds are from the north and west and blowing 5-10 mph across the upper elevations. For today, we should see increasing clouds and more snow showers this afternoon. Currently, the clouds are entering northwest Utah and should arrive around 9:00 am this morning. Temperatures will remain cold (for March) and only climb into the upper 20's °F this afternoon at say 9,000'. Winds will eventually become more westerly and are not forecast to increase until this evening.

Rough snow totals below:

Little Cottonwood Canyon: 16-26" snow (1.40 - 2.02" H20)

Big Cottonwood Canyon: 16-22" snow (1.10 - 1.75 H20)

Park City Ridgeline: 7-15" snow (0.90 - 1.30 H20)

General Announcements

Please visit this website with information about Responsible Winter Recreation by the Utah Office of Outdoor Recreation.

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This information does not apply to developed ski areas or highways where avalanche control is normally done. 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.

Observations and Avalanches

Backcountry Emergency Procedures