OGDEN, Utah – The Utah Avalanche Center issued an avalanche warning for northern Utah on Saturday.
The risk of natural and human-caused avalanches is high in Logan, Ogden, the Uintas, Salt Lake, and Provo, the agency reports.
Avalanche risk is “considerable” in the Skyline range, the Abajos, and Moab area mountains.
- Considerable danger on upper and mid elevation slopes with significant accumulations of heavy new snow.
- With more accumulation overnight and more snow likely to fall on Saturday, the avalanche danger is probably higher in the Southern Bear River Range, the Logan Peak Area, and the Wellsville Range.
- Heavy snow and drifting from moderate west wind during Saturday’s winter storm will cause rising avalanche danger, natural avalanches are increasingly possible, and high danger could develop on steep upper elevation slopes.
Recommendation: Avoid travel in avalanche terrain. Stay off and out from under slopes steeper than about 30 degrees.
Ogden, Salt Lake, and Provo area mountains (Trent Meisenheimer, Utah Avalanche Center):
- Avalanche danger is high on all steep slopes at the upper elevations, where human-triggered slab avalanches are likely.
- Avalanche danger is also high on mid-elevation steep slopes facing west, northwest, north, northeast, and east.
“We have very dangerous avalanche conditions, and traveling in avalanche terrain is NOT recommended. Slab avalanches 1 to 3 feet deep hundreds of feet wide are likely. These are unsurvivable avalanche conditions.”
- All other aspects have considerable avalanche danger.
“If you’re leaving a resort boundary through an exit point, you are stepping into HIGH avalanche danger.”