UDOT PLANNED AVALANCHE CLOSURES!!

Avalanche: SR 92

Observer Name
Nalli
Observation Date
Monday, January 17, 2011
Avalanche Date
Monday, January 17, 2011
Region
Provo » Provo Canyon » North Fork Provo R. » SR 92
Location Name or Route
SR 92 below Sundance Resort
Elevation
6,000'
Aspect
Northwest
Slope Angle
42°
Trigger
Natural
Avalanche Type
Wet Loose
Depth
10"
Width
20'
Vertical
400'
Comments

The rain soaked snowpack at the lowest elevations has had enough. By 10:30 the temp at 6000' had risen to 4 Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} 4°F peaking at 4 Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} 8° at 14:00. The snow on the steep ledges above the road to Sundance became isothermal and completely saturated and at 10:45 a small WL-N-D1 hit the road covering half of the uphill lane. After people were cleared from the area, three other similar slides put more debris on the road. SR92 was closed from 11:00 to 15:00 until the temp began to fall and the pack started to stabilize. Since yesterday Jan. 16 around 4pm most of the steep paths at low elevations have slid to the ground. The less steep terrain at low elevation is just shrinking and melting away. The most extreme January Thaw I can remember.

There was similar activity at the very steep mid elevation terrain low on the Fingers adjacent to Sundance. So far I haven't seen anything from the upper elevations. Hopefully the temps will drop and things will lock up a bit in order for us to get up and evaluate the condition of our buried facets.

Coordinates