Backcountry avalanche warning issued for Bear River range

The National Weather Service and the Utah Avalanche Center have issued backcountry avalanche warnings for the Bear River mountain range, as well as Wasatch and Western Uinta ranges. The warning was issued Tuesday morning and remains in effect through Wednesday morning.

“Heavy snow and strong wind (are) creating widespread areas of unstable snow at upper elevations,” the warning says. “Human triggered and natural avalanches are likely. Stay off and out from under slopes steeper than 30 degrees. Traveling in avalanche terrain is not recommended.”

“Avoid and stay well clear of obvious or historic avalanche paths and run-out zones,” the warning continues. “Stay off and out from under steep slopes with wind drifted or rain-saturated snow.”

The Tony Grove reporting station has recorded over 27″ of heavy snow over the last three days. In addition to the recent snow, windy conditions contribute to the avalanche danger in Utah’s backcountry. According to the Utah Avalanche Center, south winds were averaging around 33 mph, with an earlier gust of 54 mph at the Logan Peak weather station.

A cold Pacific storm is expected to continue to impact the region through Wednesday.

Several wet avalanches have been observed in both Logan and Blacksmith Fork canyons over the last few days. The avalanche risk is high on west, northwest, north, northeast and east facing slopes above 7,000 feet.

 

Free News Delivery by Email

Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Enter your email below to start!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

For security, use of Google's reCAPTCHA service is required which is subject to the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

I agree to these terms.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.