Avalanche conditions across the state have started to become less dangerous. Still, after a week that featured two avalanches in Huntington Canyon, residents of the area need to stay safe while exploring the Manti Skyline and beyond. Brett Kobernik from the Utah Avalanche Center called into the KOAL newsroom to provide this week’s avalanche forecast.
Opening our conversation, Kobernik spoke on the recent avalanches that occurred in Huntington Canyon,” I think for a lot of folks coming out of the Castle Country area heading up into the mountains, this is significant information. Anytime you hear or see recent avalanches, that’s the biggest sign of unstable snow.” He added,” These avalanches were triggered in the upper area, just below the dam of Electric Lake. And this is a shallower snowpack area, so it doesn’t surprise us a whole lot. But there’s a lot of terrain still around Huntington Canyon and other canyons within similar elevation bands where folks still could trigger avalanches.”
Kobernik then looked ahead to the weekend and the conditions that the high country may hold,” Heading into the weekend, the danger rating will most likely be in the considerable range, which is an elevated danger. And again, it’s going to be slowly decreasing, but it’s kind of a tricky time right now. I don’t trust it. Personally, I’m going to be avoiding the steep slopes until I see some more stable conditions come our way.”
The avalanche expert explained the reasoning for his caution,” Basically what the pattern is, the danger probably peaked over the last couple of weeks, but we still have some dangerous conditions up there. Now, the danger is slowly decreasing, but it’s a tricky deal with this buried, faceted snow that’s near the ground. We call it a persistent weak layer because that weak layer can persist and produce avalanches for long periods of time. Now, the tricky thing is that the chances of triggering an avalanche aren’t all that great. You might be able to get on to eight out of 10 steep slopes, and they won’t avalanche. But the trick is figuring out those two slopes that are going to avalanche, and there’s really no good way to do that. So even though the chances are not that great, the consequences are still there.”
Kobernik then turned his attention to an upcoming safety presentation by the UAC scheduled for Jan. 14 at 7 p.m. at Big Pine Sports in Fairview,” there’ll be some giveaways and some food. And we will cover all the basics of avalanche safety, talk about rescue gear and safe travel techniques and anything that’s going to help folks stay safe out there while traveling in the mountains in the backcountry,” explained Kobernik,” it’s open to anyone who’s recreating out in the backcountry. It doesn’t matter if you’re snowmobiling, skiing, snowboarding, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing or just going out and playing on red sleds. It’s a great place to learn about how to stay safe out there.”
To stay up-to-date with current avalanche conditions, you can visit UtahAvalancheCenter.org.