The Castle Country area finally received snow in the valley, which means it really dumped up in the higher terrain. Castle Country Radio was able to speak over the telephone with the Utah Avalanche Center’s Brett Kobernik about the latest conditions.
“We have a high avalanche danger up in the mountains right now and we’ve issued avalanche warnings for pretty much all the regions across the state of Utah, this is not a localized thing, we’re dealing with dangerous avalanche conditions throughout the entire state,” stated Kobernik. There is several more snowstorms in the forecast throughout the weekend so going out to recreate in the mountains is not a good idea at this time.
“Now, if you choose to go up there anyways its imperative, I can’t stress this enough, it’s imperative to stay off any steep slopes and make sure you’re not below any steep slopes as well. At this point in time, we’re going to start seeing avalanches that can be triggered from a distance. So you don’t even have to be on the slope to trigger an avalanche,” said Kobernik. This includes staying away from steep gulleys like the ones you find in Huntington Canyon.
Again, the forecast states that there will be several snow storms passing through the area over the weekend. “Our avalanche danger is increasing and it will continue to do so through the weekend. It could be a fairly remarkable event given what the storms look like. We’re going to see periods of snow, it could be significant amounts, and the kicker is it does look like its going to be windy. That always enhances the danger up there so this is no time to be screwing around up there in the high country,” said Kobernik. It’s going to take some time for the avalanche dangers to decrease so its very important for folks to know what the conditions are before heading out.
Folks can find out what conditions are daily by visiting the Utah Avalanche Center’s website. “There’s always a lot of good information there on the website. They’re will be photos and videos and all kinds of educational stuff. It’s https://utahavalanchecenter.org/ We produce the forecast for the Manti Skyline every day, at 7:00 am its updated so there’s information for folks there as far as what the current conditions are,” said Kobernik.