Wasatch
Cache National Forest
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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Avalanche advisory
Saturday,
MARCH 2, 2002 7:30 AM
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Good morning, this is Evelyn
Lees with the
Current Conditions:
It’s another bone chilling
morning in the mountains, with temperatures ranging from 0 to -10. Combine that with the 10 to 15 mph northerly
winds blowing along the ridges and the new wind chill chart will give you a
reading of -20 to -30. While these
numbers are delightfully outrageous, the truth is outdoor activities today,
like yesterday, are reasonable with careful dressing and an emphasis on being
in the sun and off the windy ridgelines.
Surface snow conditions are
better than one might expect – this week’s small storms have added up to a foot
of snow in the Salt Lake and Logan mountains, with 2-5” in the Park City, Ogden
and Provo mountains. Some shady,
sheltered slopes have very good soft snow conditions, while most other aspects
are new snow on a variety of breakable and supportable wind and sun crusts.
Avalanche Conditions:
Yesterday,
the new snow activity was confined to sluffing and a few pockets of shallow
soft slabs formed by the northerly winds.
These slabs and loose snow sluffs could be triggered today in wind
loaded starting zones, cliff areas and on steep slopes. Use caution and beware of terrain traps and
the potential to be swept over cliff bands.
No
avalanches breaking into deeper old snow layers have been reported from the
backcountry since the Sunday/Monday incidents, though a large collapse was
reported yesterday. Keep in mind the
deeper weak layers may still be triggered in isolated places and avalanches in
the newer snow may break down into the deeper layers.
The
distribution of these deeper weak layers is quite variable and winter travelers
need to carefully evaluate steep slopes before crossing them. If you can poke your ski pole or arm through
the upper layers of the snow and find loose sugary crystals underneath, steep
slopes in that area may be suspect. Also
be suspicious of areas with hollow sounding hard wind slabs – they often have
weak facets beneath them. Places with
less than about three feet of total depth tend to have more advanced weak
layers, including steep rocky chutes, slopes that have already avalanched
earlier this season and in areas that have a thinner snowpack.
Bottom Line:
The
danger of human triggered avalanches is MODERATE
on slopes steeper than about 35 degrees.
Human triggered avalanches and sluffs within the new snow are
possible. There is also a possibility of
triggering a slide on a deeper weak layer, producing larger and more dangerous
avalanche.
(
These
areas have had a thin snowpack most of the winter, and the sugary weak snow is
more common than in the Cottonwood Canyons.
The danger of human triggered avalanches is more widespread in the
(
Reports
indicate that the avalanche danger is higher in the
Mountain Weather:
Skies will be partly sunny
today with cold temperatures and occasional snow flurries. High temperatures will around 15 degrees at
8,000 feet and may never even reach zero on the high ridges. The northerly winds will average 10 to 20 mph
along the ridges. Clear and cold
tonight, with temperatures in the negative single digits once again. On Sunday, the cold trough will start to
progress eastward and the pattern over
General Information:
The
Wasatch Powderbird Guides will have one ship in the
The
Banff Mountain Film Festival will be at the U of U’s Kingsbury Hall on March 12
and 13, at
A
sad note for you older climbers and climbing history buffs; Warren Harding, the
man that made the first ascent of
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.
For
more detailed mountain weather and avalanche information, your can call
801-364-1591, which we’ll try to have updated by around
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.
Ethan
Greene 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: