Imagine you’re skinning up for some backcountry skiing in Days Fork near Alta. You checked the avalanche report in the morning and feel good to go as the day is forecast to be a moderate, level 2 rating. Just as you enter avalanche terrain in a high elevation area, your phone chirps with a new text message that reads: “11am, Days Fork, skier caught, uninjured, soft slab, 2’x100’x500′.” Wouldn’t you be glad to have this information before dropping into Days Fork yourself? Then sign up to receive text messages from the Utah Avalanche Center.
Avalanche conditions are constantly in flux, and that avalanche report you read hours ago may be irrelevant by late afternoon. With real-time avalanche info coming in on your phone, you can stay up to date on current conditions and be better informed to make the right decisions in avy terrain.
Here are some other examples of text messages sent out by the Utah Avalanche Center last season:
•HS-NC-3 radar love 200′ wide step down to near ground….ran near end if storm.
•Large natural spotted by solitude patrol in meadow chutes.
•Avalanche Warning issued with dangerous conditions expected through the week.
•Fatality yesterday near Francis Peak. Reported 42 yr old male snowmobiler. Issued Avalanche Watch for today with forecasted storm.
•Highway control work in LCC cancelled.
I signed up for this service in November, and already I got messages about a huge natural slide in the Brighton Backcountry observed by ski patrol, a fatal avalanche that killed a snowmobiler in the Uinta Mountains, and warnings when avalanche danger is on the rise.
Here’s how to take part: Sign up for a Twitter account if you don’t already have one. Once that’s done, “follow” UACwasatch. The Utah Avalanche Center forecasters and other trusted sources in the field post observations to Twitter with their cell phones. Those observations on the Twitter page is then forwarded to your phone. That means you get almost instant, real-time access to info about avalanche conditions, even if you’re in the backcountry yourself.
In addition, you can also send the UAC a message if you observe an avalanche yourself, that will then be forwarded to everybody who signed up for the service. Check out the UAC Twitter page here.
Once you have your Twitter account, simply send the text “follow UACwasatch” to 40404 on your cell phone, and you’ll be good to go.
You can also sign up for UDOT avalanche info on Twitter. Find out when the roads up the Cottonwood Canyons and Provo Canyon are closed for avalanche mitigation. Use your Twitter account to follow UDOTavy here.
And as always, check the avalanche report before heading into the backcountry at the Utah Avalanche Center website.
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