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
tuesday, MARCH 12, 2002 7:30 AM
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Good morning, this is Evelyn
Lees with the
The
annual Banff Mountain Film Festival starts tonight at the U of U’s Kingsbury
Hall at
Current Conditions:
A strong southwesterly flow will
bring mild, moist weather to northern
There is quite a mixture of
snow surface conditions out there today.
Soft dense powder is limited to northerly facing slopes above about
9,000’. Other aspects and elevations
have a mix of wind damage, various sun crusts, and moist or crusty snow on all
aspects below about 8,500’.
Avalanche Conditions:
The combination of longer
days and warmer temperatures makes it feel like spring is already here. Another sign is the rapid stabilization of the snow
after each storm or wind event – most of the old winds slabs seem glued right
in there, and yesterday’s few inches of new snow bonded fairly well. Today,
a few shallow new wind drifts may develop as the southwesterly winds increase
to strong and start to move a bit of snow.
Drifts will be most common on northeast through southeast facing slopes
above about 9,000’. But as always, watch
for cross loading around terrain features such as gully side walls, rock out
crops and sub ridges. The warm
temperatures may make cornices more sensitive today.
With
warm overnight temperatures and rain possible later today at the lower
elevations, watch for wet snow sluffs, especially on northerly facing low and
mid elevation slopes today. Any time the
snow gets wet and mushy where you are, get off of and out from under steep
slopes and avoid terrain traps such as gullies.
In
the Salt Lake, Park City and Ogden mountains there is still an isolated potential
for slides to break on weak faceted snow near the ground where the snow pack is
thin, such as near rocks and ridge lines and on slopes that have been wind
eroded. In the
Bottom Line:
The danger of human triggered avalanches is MODERATE on slopes steeper than 35 degrees that have recent
deposit of wind drifted snow. There is
also a MODERATE danger of wet avalanche activity on snow
covered steep slopes at low and mid elevations.
There’s a LOW danger
elsewhere.
(Provo Area
Mountains, Western Uinta Mountains and Manti-Skyline)
These
areas have had a thin snowpack most of the winter and sugary weak snow is more widespread. The danger of human triggered avalanches is
still CONSIDERABLE in the
(Ogden Area Mountains)
Same
as SLC area mountains.
Mountain Weather:
A moist
westerly flow will develop over northern
General Information:
Wasatch
Powderbird Guides will fly in the
On
a very special note, Drew Hardesty and his wife Hilary are proud new parents of
a baby boy. Rumor has it mother and baby
are doing well, but father is still recovering.
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 [email protected], 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 noon each day.
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.
Tom
Kimbrough 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: