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Good afternoon, this is Evelyn
Lees with the
Current Conditions:
Under mostly clear skies,
mountain temperatures have climbed to near 30 at 10,000’, and winds are light
out of the west. Yesterday’s storm rather
evenly distributed the snow, with about 10 inches in Big Cottonwood and the
Avalanche Conditions:
There have been three
distinct patterns of avalanche activity today – avalanches breaking within the
new snow from yesterday or Monday, slides breaking into the more deeply buried
faceted weak layers, and wet snow activity from heating.
New snow instabilities settle
out rapidly and today’s observers are reporting mostly stubborn, pockety activity
within the new snow, breaking on the density inversion in Monday’s few inches
of light snow. So while much of the new
snow has stabilized, there are certainly a few drifts that will still be
sensitive on steep slopes, especially at wind exposed upper elevations where
the most drifting was occurring yesterday.
Many slopes in our forecast
areas have layers of more deeply buried weak faceted snow. Although there was not enough weight added by
this storm to start a major avalanche cycle, there are areas where slopes are
right on the edge. There were reports of
2 remotely triggered slides from the
And finally, heating and direct
sun caused some wet loose snow sluffs today, and I expect this problem to be more
widespread tomorrow. Thin clouds
tomorrow could also help warm even the shady slopes. So if you find the snow getting wet and
mushy, get off of and out from under steep slopes.
Bottom Line:
The
danger of human triggered avalanches is MODERATE on slopes of about 35 degrees and
steeper, especially with recent deposits of wind drifted snow. With day time heating on Friday, the danger may
rise to CONSIDERABLE
on and below steep slopes. The danger is lower in areas that received less than
about 6 inches of new snow.
(
The
danger of human triggered avalanches is CONSIDERABLE on and below steep slopes in the
(
The
danger of human triggered avalanches is MODERATE on steep slopes in the
(
The
danger of human triggered avalanches is CONSIDERABLE on steep slopes, especially with
recent deposits of wind drifted snow. Human
triggered avalanche are likely and natural avalanches possible.
Mountain Weather:
High
pressure will remain over
General 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.
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.
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.
Bruce
Tremper 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