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
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Good afternoon, this is Evelyn
Lees with the
Current Conditions:
The closed low is moving
slowly east across southern
Avalanche Conditions:
There
was an avalanche accident high on the Mary Ellen side of the American Fork Twin
yesterday morning. A skier triggered a
hard slab avalanche that broke around the old January 6 ice crust. This is the same layer that was responsible
for a major avalanche cycle in late January and early February. The slide broke about 120 feet across and 1
to 3 feet deep. The slope was southeast
facing at about 11,400 feet. The person,
an experienced avalanche worker, was injured as he was carried over a rock
band. Fortunately, it sounds like he
will be OK. This is one of the above-timberline
slopes that did not avalanche during the storm on January 28 and it was also
drifted by the strong winds last Thursday.
The initial slide released a second similar slab avalanche below and to
the left of the first one.
Today’s
new snow is bonding poorly to the hard slick crusts and to weak surface snow on
shady slopes. Watch out for sluffing on
steep slopes and, as the winds increase tonight, for fresh batches of shallow,
but sensitive new wind drifts.
In
the big picture, our snow pack is a frustrating layer cake of weak snow grains sandwiched
between stronger slabs. This weak faceted
snow exists at a variety of levels in the snowpack, and is notorious for being persistent.
It is in these layers that there is
still an isolated chance of triggering a deeper hard slab avalanche and any
slides in the new snow this week may step down into these deeper weak layers.
While
many of the current avalanche problems aren’t large in size or wide in distribution,
always be thinking consequences – even a small sluff or slide on can send you
off a cliff or into trees.
Bottom Line:
The danger of human triggered
avalanches is LOW on most slopes. However, there are isolated areas where it is
possible to trigger an old wind slab or a more dangerous deeper hard slab,
especially on steep mid and upper elevation slopes.
(
Mostly
the same general conditions as in the SLC mountains.
(
Mostly
the same general conditions as in the SLC mountains.
Mountain Weather:
Scattered light snow showers will
continue tonight, with accumulations of generally a trace to as much as 3”
possible in areas favored by northwest flow.
The northwesterly winds will increase to 15 to 20 mph along the
ridges. Lows tonight will be 10 to
15. Tuesday will be mostly cloudy, with
late afternoon snow showers possible. Northwest
winds 15 to 25 mph along the ridges. Highs
will be near 15 at 10,000’ and 25 at 8,000’.
The next chance for snow - Tuesday night into Wednesday - looks potentially
disappointing with more wind than snow in the forecast.
General Information:
During
the Olympics, we will issue both morning and afternoon advisories. We’ll use the 364 -1591 line for more
detailed or additional avalanche information.
To
report backcountry snow and avalanche conditions, especially if you observe or
trigger an avalanche, you can leave a message at (801) 524-5304 or
1-800-662-4140. Or you can e-mail an
observation to uacobs@avalanche .org, or you can fax
an observation to 801-524-6301.
Wasatch
Powderbird Guides will not be flying during the Olympics.
We
have a new icon-based,
short advisory posted each day at www.avalanche.org. We would appreciate any feedback on this new
product.
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
Thanks for calling!
_____________________________________________________________________________
For more detailed weather
information go to our Mountain Weather Advisory
National
Weather Service - Salt Lake City - Snow.
For an explanation of
avalanche danger ratings:
http://www.avalanche.org/usdanger.htm