This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The day after a skier died under a wall of tumbling snow, avalanche danger remained elevated throughout the northern and central Utah mountains, and much of the state braced for a weekend of potentially treacherous winter weather.
The Utah Avalanche Center began Friday by rating the risk for potentially dangerous mountain backcountry snowslides as "considerable" along slopes above Logan, Ogden, Salt Lake and Provo, as well as the Skyline and Uintas districts. The Moab and Abajo mountains earned "moderate" assessments.
Killed in the Thursday afternoon avalanche on Gobblers Knob's Whitesnake run, between Mill Creek and Big Cottonwood Canyon, was 49-year-old Douglas Green of Salt Lake City. A 50-year-old companion, Tyson Bradley, also of Salt Lake City, was treated for minor injuries at the hospital and released.
Avalanche forecasters warn that recent storms have left many of the region's backcountry slopes with weak layers of snow, and numerous slides — both naturally and human triggered — were being reported. Friday's expected clearer skies and strong sunshine, with high temperatures rising above freezing, will keep the danger level high.
The western two-thirds of Utah also was under a Hazardous Weather Outlook, extending into next week. Valley rain and mountain snow was predicted for the Wasatch Front, western and southern valleys. Significant accumulations of the white stuff were expected by Sunday night and early Monday.
The Salt Lake and Tooele valleys expected mostly rain beginning Saturday afternoon, driven by south winds of 10-20 mph. High temperatures were to hover in the low-40s, a couple degrees cooler than Friday's partly cloudy forecast.
Southern Utahns looked for sunny weather and highs approaching 60 degrees on Saturday, up 3-5 degrees from Friday's forecast. However, partly cloudy skies will give way to rain showers Saturday night, with overnight lows in the mid-30s.
The Utah Division of Air Quality gave "green," or healthy grades to all monitoring districts through the weekend.
For more extensive forecast information, visit The Salt Lake Tribune's weather page at: http//www.sltrib.com/weather.
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