Using Caltopo, aerial photos, and other mapping apps with up-to-date satellite imagery In the Wasatch Mountains and many other mountain ranges in Utah, mapping early season snow cover can help us predict where some of the most deadly avalanches can occur. Often the early season snow becomes weak, sugary, and faceted. This early season snow becomes a major avalanche problem as it forms a persistent weak layer on which both soft slab and hard slab avalanches can fail. Early season satellite and aerial imagery is a great way to find out where the early season snow existed prior …

Our Week in Review highlights significant snowfall, weather, and avalanche events of the previous week. (Click here to review the archived forecasts for the Salt Lake mountains.) The danger roses for the Salt Lake mountains from Monday, November 25 through Thursday, November 28: Early Season Summary (Nikki Champion): The season was off to a slow start, in mid-September we got our first dusting of snow in the Central Wasatch. On Sept 20th, we got about 3 inches of snow with .4 inches of water, followed by another 3 inches of snow and .85 inches of water. Following …

Last winter, the Utah Legislature passed H.B. 380 designating the first week of December each year as Avalanche Awareness Week. Join the Utah Avalanche Center, Utah Office of Outdoor Recreation, Utah State Parks, Utah Department of Transportation, and Ski Utah to celebrate the First Annual Avalanche Awareness Week December 2-7. The goal of Avalanche Awareness Week is to save lives. During Avalanche Awareness Week, Utah Avalanche Center and its partners will host events, classes, and other activities to promote avalanche awareness, education and safety. See the list of events below and we …

It's key to head into the early avalanche season with the proper mindset. In this podcast, we talk with UAC program director Bo Torrey. Bo talks about particular risks unique to the early season, tips and tricks for knocking the rust off your early season rescue skills, and charts out the path forward with avalanche education. Transceiver First things first, replace your transceiver batteries with new Alkaline Batteries. Firmware updates, range checks, signal checks are all things you can take care of before the snow flies. Get your backcountry partners together …

At the 12th annual USAW (Utah Snow and Avalanche Workshop) I gave a presentation on the epic avalanche conditions we experienced in the La Sal Mountains last winter. It all started with early-season October snow, followed by an extended period of high pressure, just like many mountainous areas in the Intermountain West are experiencing right now. We are currently high and dry in the La Sals, but for those of you who live in areas with snow, pay close attention to where it is and how weak it becomes. And then, even more importantly, pay attention to how it reacts when new snow is finally …

Blog: The Powder Cloud - UAC Newsletter - June 2019 Attach File: 2019-05-Powder-Cloud.pdf Published on Utah Avalanche Center (https://utahavalanchecenter.org)

Plenty of nice snow snow fell and it was a busy winter season in the Logan Zone. Luckily there were no avalanche tragedies and no injuries were reported. Even so, there were numerous dangerous human-triggered and natural avalanches, several close calls were reported, and a handful of people were caught and carried, with at least three partially buried. People apparently made good choices for the most part, wisely avoiding travel on slopes where dangerous avalanche conditions were mentioned in our forecast, and there were many days with fantastic, deep powder and generally stable …