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Good morning, this is Drew
Hardesty with the
Don’t
miss the Banff Mountain Film Festival at the U of U’s Kingsbury Hall on March
12 and 13, at
Current Conditions:
Under a mild westerly flow, overnight
lows were warmer than they’ve been for over a week, dropping into just the high
teens and low twenties. Ridgetop winds have been averaging in the 15-20mph range
out of the west, where they’ll remain today.
Backcountry snow surface conditions are a mix of sun and wind crusts,
with good riding and turning conditions in the soft recrystallized
powder on the shady slopes.
Avalanche Conditions:
Another
three human triggered avalanches occurred yesterday, two by the same party on
the northeast face of
These
continue to confirm the pockety nature and spatial extent of the current
avalanche problem. The instabilities are
far from widespread, but it’s difficult to define a legitimate pattern. Not only are separate slopes quite
individual, areas along the same slope are as well – on a traverse, you can go
from an area of relative strength to a weak spot over a matter of feet. While it does look like most of the recent
activity has been on steep, upper elevation north facing slopes along the upper
Cottonwood Ridgeline, I feel certain that other booby-traps exist with similar
terrain characteristics elsewhere along the range. The trick will be to gauge
each area individually, keep your slope angles down, and follow safe travel
protocol.
Bottom Line:
The
danger of human triggered avalanches is MODERATE on slopes steeper than about 35 degrees. Human triggered avalanches are possible. It will still be possible for any avalanche
to step down into deeper, faceted snow. Wet
point release activity on the sunny aspects will be likely today as the
temperatures reach their daytime highs.
(
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
(
Same as above.
Mountain Weather:
Another
fine day in the Wasatch with partly cloudy skies, 8000’ highs in the
mid-thirties, and moderate westerly winds along the ridgetops. 10,000’ highs
will be in the low twenties. The winds
will increase to strong tonight and tomorrow, with a weak brushby
tonight, a decent system on Wednesday night, with a good storm forecast for
Thursday night.
General Information:
The
Wasatch Powderbird Guides will be flying in the Silver, Day’s,
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.
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: