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
To receive automated
e-mails of this advisory click HERE.
Saturday, January 15, 2005
Good morning, this Evelyn
Lees with the
Bruce Tremper is giving a free avalanche
awareness talk at Treasure Mountain Middle School in Park City at 7 pm tonight.
American Fork Canyon will open around
noon today, 1/15/05.
Current Conditions:
High clouds have moved in
over northern
Avalanche Conditions:
A major hard slab
avalanche cycle continues in the mountains of northern
I have updated the 364-1591
line with yesterday’s avalanche activity, and I will update it through out the
day with any information I receive on the Dutch Draw accident.
These monster, killer hard
slabs are breaking very deep on weak faceted snow that formed during the November
dry spell. These deeply buried weak
layers are being extraordinarily slow to stabilize, creating an unusual
frightening delayed action avalanche cycle.
From the continuous activity over the past few days, the weak layers
clearly HAVE NOT adjusted to the
heavy load of snow from the past 2 weeks.
In addition, some recent slides are breaking within the newer snow only,
about 1 to 3’ deep. Wet sluffing may
occur today on a variety of aspects, especially at the low and mid
elevations. Travel on and below steep
slopes in the backcountry must be avoided this weekend. If the steeps are what you are looking for,
go to a resort.
Backcountry travel is not recommended for people
without excellent route finding, travel and avalanche skills. Those with
these skills will find excellent, safe turning and riding on low angle slopes
with no steep slopes above. If you head
out, take note that these recent slides are running historically far distances,
taking out 100 year old trees, and overrunning what we normally think as safe
spots.
Bottom Line (
The avalanche
danger is CONSIDERABLE on and below all steep slopes, especially those facing north
through southeast and slopes that have been drifted with wind blown snow over
the past few days. Considerable means
human triggered avalanches are probable and natural avalanches possible, and
most of the recently triggered slides are UNSURVIVABLY
LARGE and DANGEROUS.
Mountain Weather:
A couple of weak
disturbances will move across northern
Yesterday Powderbird
Guides flew in American Fork. Today, if
possible, they will be in
UDOT HAS A NEW ROAD AND AVALANCHE HOTLINE
FOR THE COTTONWOODS: 975-4838.
Snowbird is
hosting its 2nd annual Backcountry Avalanche Awareness Week January
31 – February 7th as a benefit for the
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.
Drew Hardesty will update this advisory by 7:30 on
Sunday morning.
Thanks for calling
For an explanation of
avalanche danger ratings:
http://www.avalanche.org/usdanger.htm