Wasatch 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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e-mails of this advisory click HERE.
Avalanche advisory
Friday, January 14, 2005
Good morning, this Brett
Kobernik with the
UDOT HAS A NEW ROAD AND AVALANCHE HOTLINE
FOR THE COTTONWOODS: 975-4838.
Current Conditions:
Yesterday the winds blew
for most of the day from the northwest averaging 20-30 mph with gusts near 50
easily transporting snow to lee slopes. The
winds are still blowing in the 20-30 mph range from the west but the stronger
gusts have subsided somewhat. Ridge top
temperatures are in the teens.
Avalanche Conditions:
Large and deadly avalanches
continued to release early Thursday morning.
Activity included at least four large natural avalanches, two avalanches
from helicopter skiing test explosives (photo),
and a hand full of slides from resort control work. All of these had a 3-5’ fracture line depths
with the largest in West Monitor (photo) up
to 9 feet deep in one section of the crown face. One of these natural avlanches released in
skier compacted terrain at one of the local ski areas. These all released due to added weight from wind
transported snow over the last 48 hours.
The avalanche activity is widespread enough to make most avalanche
professionals nervous.
I would expect the
activity to slow down today but my own personal pucker factor will not let me
toy with any steeper slopes until the avalanche activity stops. I spoke to many people yesterday that agreed
that the snowpack is gaining strength but not one of them would consider
getting on the big slopes yet. It’s like
playing with an armed nuclear bomb. You
can probably keep it from exploding but do you want to take the chance.
Bottom Line (
A CONSIDERABLE danger still exists in the mountains
today on steep north through southeast facing slopes especially in areas with
fresh wind deposited snow. Be sure to
continue to stay off of and out from underneath steep slopes. Although the chance of triggering a slide is decreasing,
the consequences if you do are lethal.
Low angle slopes have excellent riding conditions and you can enjoy the
day without constant worry that you may trigger an avalanche.
Mountain Weather:
This morning we’ll see
partly cloudy skies with westerly winds near 30 mph along the ridges. Ridgetop temperatures will climb to around
20. This afternoon winds should decrease
to around 20 mph. A dirty ridge will
affect the area through the weekend bringing mostly high clouds. Some light precipitation expected late Saturday
through Sunday. Warming will occur early
next week.
Yesterday Powderbird
Guides were grounded do to strong winds and if they are able to get out today
they will operate in
Snowbird is
hosting its 2nd annual Backcountry Avalanche Awareness Week January
31 – February 7th as a benefit for the
We do an early morning
update around 6am each day on the 364-1591 line.
If you are getting into
the backcountry and see anything we should know about, give us a call at 524-5304,
or 1-800-662-4140, or e-mail us at [email protected]
We value your information
very much.
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.
Evelyn Lees will update this advisory by 7:30 on Saturday
morning.
Thanks for calling
For an explanation of
avalanche danger ratings:
http://www.avalanche.org/usdanger.htm