After so many weeks of high avalanche dangers, it’s good to report we are now facing lower avalanche dangers. Castle Country Radio was able to speak over the telephone with the Utah Avalanche Center’s Brett Kobernik about the latest conditions.

We started off the year with a lite sugary layer of snow and with snow storms coming in they have piled on top of that loose layer. So now that we have had a few good snow storms that has had a lot of moisture in it now has compacted that loose layer. “So we got these bridges that are very difficult to break through into that older snow at this point. So its kind of two things going on there; both of them work in conjunction with each other and both help stabilize the snowpack, so that’s been awesome. We haven’t seen any avalanches break into that old, weak, layer near the ground since the 2nd of Jan.,” stated Kobernik. The great news is that it’s pretty unlikely we will see any avalanches from here on out.

What we could see is new storm instability as more storms come in so that is what officials will check on. “Also with these new snowstorm layers, they generally if there is any instability in generally stabilize relatively quickly within a couple of days usually. So this is a much more manageable situation, moving forward, what it looks like is we will see storms, we make sure that there is no instability with the storm snow, and kind of proceed with caution for a day or so, and we should be pretty good,” said Kobernik. Officials will continue to monitor the avalanche conditions with each storm that comes to the area.

Now if the snow storms start to taper off there could be some concerns about stable conditions because the top layer can start to form into a sugary layer. “That’s a big part of my job is I do monitor the snow surface conditions. Because during long periods of high pressure, we can see those sugary layers form on the surface again. Now they’re not dangerous as they are forming but what happens is once we start stacking more snow up on top of them, they can become dangerous,” explained Kobernik. Generally, we can go a week without snow storms with high pressure but anything after two weeks may cause some concerns.

Officials don’t want to discourage folks from recreating on public lands but do want them to be aware of the conditions before they head out. When visiting avalanche terrain, it’s also important to have the proper avalanche gear, which includes an avalanche beacon, a probe and a shovel. To keep up to date on avalanche conditions you can visit the Utah Available Center website at https://utahavalanchecenter.org/