The Utah Avalanche Center is reporting moderate avalanche danger in the backcountry this week after recent Wasatch Mountain storms.
UAC forecaster Drew Hardesty said the best and safest skiing and riding in the backcountry will be on low-angled slopes in the middle and upper elevations.
“When you're out in the backcountry today, you're going to see loose, dry, wet, loose avalanches in their respective habitats,” he said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” Tuesday.
He said recreators could encounter two separate slide issues.
Christmas Eve wind created slabs in elevations above 10,000 feet that could slide, but won’t be severe unless skiers or riders enter steeper terrain. The serious slide problem is the hard-slab avalanches.
“It's something I would call low probability, high consequence,” he said. “And that's triggering a hard slab avalanche that steps 2 to 3 feet deep down there, the old faceted snow.”
That old snow is under a crust that formed after early December rain and if that crust breaks, it could be dangerous. He said one of these slides happened between Alta and Brighton over the weekend.
“This was 1- to 3-feet deep and a couple hundred feet wide,” he said. “It was a very close call. And these are the types of avalanches that are going to kill you.”
Hardesty said the rider who triggered the avalanche was not injured in the slide but triggered a second one while avoiding the first.
Four recreators in the backcountry have been caught and carried in slides since Sunday, Dec. 28. None were seriously injured. So far, no one has died in a Utah avalanche this season.
For more information and the Utah Avalanche Center’s daily report is available here.
