Logan

Heightened avalanche conditions exist at upper elevations on drifted north-facing slopes where a persistent weak layer near the ground can produce an avalanche. The danger is MODERATE and people could still trigger dangerous avalanches remotely, from a distance, or from below. Slopes in sunny terrain and at lower elevations have less snow and a LOW danger. Expect the danger to rise rapidly and dangerous conditions to develop tomorrow as heavy snow and drifting from southwest winds overloads slopes with preexisting weak layers at all elevations.

• Evaluate snow and terrain carefully.

Beaver Mountain is opening their lifts tomorrow....

A pretty good sized natural avalanche of wind drifted snow was spotted yesterday off Providence Peak in upper Providence Canyon. Not really a surprise, as this very steep avalanche path frequently avalanches, especially with drifting from sustained southwest winds like we've seem in the past few days.

A couple skier triggered avalanches occurred Saturday in high north facing terrain. The largest was likely remotely triggered as it was observed near an uptrack near the Tony Grove-Blind Hollow Saddle at about 8800' on a north facing slope. The 2 to 3 foot deep avalanches failed on a persistent weak layer consisting of sugary faceted snow capping a crust near the ground.

A Christmas winter storm will impact the region, and the national weather service has issued a Winter Storm Warning, with heavy snow likely in the mountains around Logan tomorrow through Christmas Morning. Two or three feet of snow could accumulate in favored locations in the Bear River Range. The much needed snow and drifting from sustained southwest winds will cause rapidly rising avalanche danger, and the storm is likely to create very dangerous avalanche conditions on many slopes in the backcountry. Light snow is expected to start falling this afternoon, west-southwest winds will blow 15 to 23 mph on the ridges, and it will be mostly cloudy with 8500' high temperatures around 32° F. A few inches could accumulate tonight, but heavy snowfall is expected to really start up tomorrow.

The new snow will accumulate on weak sugary surface snow and/or feathery surface hoar or frost that formed in the last few days under high pressure weather conditions, and is widespread across the Logan Zone. In many areas the heavy new snow will not bond well to the weak surface snow, and avalanches of storm snow are likely. Once buried, the weak surface snow could become a tricky persistent weak layer. This type of weak snow can create avalanches on slopes less steep than you might expect. The storm will also overload a persistent weak layer near the ground on upper elevation north facing facing slopes, creating potential for very large and destructive avalanches.

Nice surface hoar feathers on the snow surface at low elevations in the backcountry. This can become a future persistent weak layer if it is buried intact.

• Always follow safe backcountry travel protocols. Go one person at a time in avalanche terrain, while the rest of your party watches from a safe area.
• Check your avalanche rescue equipment, change your batteries, and practice often with your backcountry partners.
• Be very careful, keep your speed down, and stay in control. Encounters with shallowly buried rocks or down trees in the early season have led to many season-ending injuries.
• The gate at the bottom of the Tony Grove Road was closed yesterday to preserve snow on the road for grooming.

Who's up for some free avalanche training? Get a refresher, become better prepared for an upcoming avalanche class, or just boost your skills. Go to https://learn.kbyg.org/ and scroll down to Step 2 for a series of interactive online avalanche courses produced by the UAC.

• Check out all the upcoming education classes and clinics HERE.
• Please submit your observations from the backcountry HERE.