Following a week that featured several avalanches across the state, two of which were fatal, the Utah Avalanche Center is again warning those who want to brave the high country to be extremely cautious as avalanche danger is still high. Brett Kobernik from the UAC called into the KOAL newsroom for this weekend’s avalanche forecast.
“ We saw numerous natural avalanches over the last weekend and also numerous avalanches have been triggered, not only on the Manti Skyline, but throughout the state including unfortunately two fatalities and two separate incidents up in the Salt Lake area,” explained Kobernik.” It’s pretty obvious right now with all these avalanches that we’re dealing with dangerous conditions.”
Looking at this week’s forecast, Kobernik stated,” We’re not going to see a lot of new snow. It looks like we should get at least a few more inches on Saturday. This isn’t going to drastically increase the avalanche danger, but the problem is it’s not stabilizing rapidly either.” He added,” We’re going to be in kind of a holding pattern with those dangerous conditions continuing into the weekend. Human-triggered avalanches are likely still this weekend, and they’re breaking fairly deep. It’s dangerous stuff up there right now.”
For those who still want to brave the high country this weekend, Kobernik provided some tips on what to be on the lookout for,” Probably the most important thing is to avoid being on steep slopes and avoid being below them. These avalanches can be triggered from a distance, so it’s not only important to be aware of where you are if you’re on steep slopes, but also below them because you can trigger them from below and those avalanches can come down and catch you from above … North-facing slopes are more dangerous, south-facing are a little bit less dangerous, but I wouldn’t split hairs this weekend. I would just continue to avoid all those steep slopes. There are so many great meadows up there and low-angled terrain that folks can go up and enjoy, and you won’t have any problem with avalanche danger if you’re sticking to slopes less steep than about 30 degrees.”
In closing, Kobernik shared,” The big message right now is that we’re dealing with dangerous avalanche conditions. These things will stabilize eventually, but it’s not going to happen this weekend, and human-triggered avalanches are still likely. So stay tuned to the avalanche forecast, we’ll keep you in tune with the current conditions up there.”
To stay up-to-date with current avalanche conditions, you can visit UtahAvalancheCenter.org.