Wasatch
Cache National Forest
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Public Safety Division of Comprehensive Emergency Management, Salt Lake County,
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Avalanche advisory
FRIDAY,
FEBRUARY 22, 2002 4:00 PM
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Good afternoon, this is Ethan
Greene with the
Current Conditions:
The calendar says that spring
is still a month away, but with temperatures in the upper 40s at 8,000 and
near 30 degrees at 10,000 it feels like spring is already here. Today westerly winds helped to keep the snow
from heating up too much in the morning, but by the afternoon the winds dropped
into the 10 mph range in low and mid elevation areas. The thick snow that fell on Wednesday became
damp on most aspects below 8,500.
Avalanche Conditions:
Snow and wind on Wednesday
created some thick wind slabs sitting on soft new snow or old firm surfaces. These were fairly sensitive at first, creating
both natural and human triggered avalanche activity. Warm temperatures and a few days have helped
to stabilize these fresh wind deposits, but there are still a few places where
you could trigger a wind slab. Yesterday
a group of skiers in the Days Fork area triggered one of these wind drifts on a
northeast facing slope. The second skier
triggered and was caught in a 1 foot deep and 60 foot wide slab avalanche. His partner below was partially buried and
lost some equipment.
Today our spring like weather
is causing some wet slide activity.
Reports from the backcountry indicate that roller balls and point
release avalanches are prevalent on sunny slopes. The largest wet avalanches yet reported are
about 10 inches deep, up to 20 feet wide and running several hundred feet
vertically. Be aware of the terrain
around you and avoid crossing under steep sun exposed slopes in the afternoon.
There remains a possibility
of triggering an avalanche that will break into old snow layers. Some of the avalanche paths that slid in the
late January cycle now have faceted snow under wind slabs, and in many low and
mid elevation areas the majority of the snow is weak and sugary. This type of snowpack may be more prevalent in
the
Bottom Line:
The
danger of human triggered avalanches is MODERATE on wind loaded slopes about 35
degrees and steeper. There is also a MODERATE
danger of wet slides on sun exposed slopes.
The danger is lower in areas that received less than about 6 inches of
new snow.
(Provo Area Mountains)
The
danger of human triggered avalanches is MODERATE on and below steep slopes in the
(
Same
as above
Mountain Weather:
High pressure 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.
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.
I
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