Wasatc h
Cache National
Forest
In partnership with: The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Forecast Center, Utah Department of Public Safety Division of Comprehensive Emergency Management, Salt Lake County, and Utah State Parks
The Utah Avalanche
Center Home page is: http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/
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Avalanche advisory
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
Good Morning. This is
Wasatch Backcountry
Rescue will be having a fundraiser Saturday night in
A free
Current Conditions:
Ridge top temperatures have
dropped about ten degrees from yesterday and they are 15-20 degrees this
morning. The winds have picked up to 20
mph from the northwest. With very warm
temperatures and sun over the last few days, the recent cooling has made a delightful
variety of crusts that will bring smiles to even the most hardened masochists. But there is still some passable, soft,
settled powder on northerly facing slopes but getting there and back is another
story.
Avalanche Conditions:
For a change, we didn’t hear
about any more human triggered avalanches yesterday. The buried weak layer of faceted snow continues
to gain strength and cooling temperatures will stiffen up the overlying slab
making avalanches more difficult to trigger—at least in theory. (click HERE
for a generalized snow profile graphic) The bad news is that if you do trigger
one, it will be a deep, wide moster and difficult to
survive. So we’re back to that kind of
setup with localized areas of lingering booby traps that will smack you a good
one if you bumble into one. You’ll find
them mostly on steep slopes that face the north half of the compass, as well as
east facing slopes and worse in thin snowpack areas. Continue to practice your full repertoire of
safe travel techniques—one at a time, have an escape route planned and use the
right equipment.
Also, the increasing wind has
created some isolated wind slabs, mostly along the upper elevation ridges. As always, avoid steep slopes with recent
wind deposits.
Bottom Line (SLC, Park City, Ogden and Provo Area
Mountains):
The avalanche danger is MODERATE with CONSIDERABLE
consequences on slopes steeper than about 35 degrees, facing northwest thorough
east or slopes that have fresh drifts of wind blown snow. If you want LOW
danger today, stay on slopes less than 30 degrees and out from underneath
steeper slopes.
Mountain Weather:
There’s a very weak system
coming out of the north that will give us some clouds tonight and maybe even a
few snowflakes. Ridge top winds will
blow today from the north and northeast 20-25 mph and ridge top temperatures will
cool down to 17 degrees. Down at 8,000’
the high should be in the mid 20’s with overnight lows in the mid teens.
As for the extended forecast,
ridge top temperatures will warm up to freezing by Friday morning with light
and variable winds. Beyond that, I don’t
see any significant snow in the forecast until around Christmas.
For more detailed weather
information visit the National Weather
Service web site.
Wasatch Powderbird Guides
will begin flying today and will do reconnaissance missions in Silver, Days and
Cardiff fork as well as in American Fork.
To report backcountry snow
and avalanche conditions, especially if you observe or trigger an avalanche,
call (801) 524-5304 or 1-800-662-4140, or email to [email protected] or fax to
801-524-6301. The information in this advisory
is from the U.S. Forest Service, which is solely responsible for its
content. This advisory describes general
avalanche conditions and local variations always occur.
I will update this advisory by 7:30 on Thursday
morning.
Thanks for calling!
________________________________________________________________________
For an explanation of
avalanche danger ratings: