SPECIAL NOTE: HALF OF ALL SKIER/SNOWBOARDER FATALITIES SINCE 99/00 HAVE OCCURRED WITH PEOPLE GOING OUT OF BOUNDS AT A SKI AREA.
Do you have the essential avalanche rescue gear (transceiver, probe, and shovel) and do you know how to use them? Watch this video to see how the three pieces of equipment work together.
Snowfall continues in the mountains.
With a 2" overnight, storm totals are about a foot of new in the Ogden mountains with about 0.7" snow-water-equivalent.
Snow conditions are thick and cakey where they haven't been either etched, eroded, or deposited into thick wind slabs.
Temperatures, as foretold, have risen during the storm and winds are shrieking even at the mid-elevations from the south and southwest. Hourly averages are 35mph with gusts to 50. Mt Ogden has gusts to 70.
We'll see continued light snowfall today with continued strong southwest winds. Temps will be in the upper 20s.
The next storm arrives later Friday into Saturday.
Mark and Trent found a few gusts up near Bountiful Peak yesterday.
Many backcountry observers noted wind slab activity yesterday on many aspects and elevations, even well off the ridgelines. These soft and hard drifts were up to 2' deep...and some were triggered at a distance. Shooting cracks with propagation were the rule.
Lots of avalanches were triggered at the ski areas. While visibility was limited yesterday, I do have notable avalanches from the backcountry to report:
- Bountiful Peak area natural 2' deep and 150' wide. Northeast facing at 8200'. photo below
- Cutler Ridge - skier triggered slide 1-' deep and 70' wide on a northeast slope at 7700'.
Special Public Announcement: IF you trigger an avalanche near one of the resorts, please call it in to the ski patrol so they don't have to put themselves in harms way to conduct a meaningless rescue.
As always, you can find all observations and recent avalanches
HERE. 
