Wasatch
Cache National Forest
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Avalanche advisory
Monday, April 8, 2002 07:30 AM
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Good morning, this is Drew
Hardesty with the
Current Conditions:
This may have been our best
refreeze in a little while. Under clear
skies, overnight temperatures were in the low 20’s at 11,000’ to 30 degrees at 8000’. Winds are in the twenties along the upper
ridgelines and are out of the northwest.
We are doing an early morning
corn report on the (801) 364-1581 line by
Avalanche Conditions:
This is our second night with
a decent refreeze, effectively putting a lid on our wet cycle from Friday and Saturday. For today, the upper portion of the snowpack
will have set up pretty well, so standard springtime precautions should be
observed. When the snow crusts soften, it’s time to get
off of and out from under steep slopes.
Either change to a cooler aspect or choose another sport for the rest of
the day. Hanging out or building jumps
in runout zones is probably a bad idea. Below
the refreeze at the low and mid-elevations on the northern exposures, the snow
remains damp, loose, and generally unsupportable. Heavy explosive control work conducted
yesterday at the Canyons pulled out three wet slabs, with some running to the
ground. All were on the north facing ski
runs on the lower mountain below 8000’. One
wet debris pile was reported to be 25’ deep, damming a creek in
There is still a chance of
deep slab avalanches that may release naturally or be triggered by smaller wet
sluffs. This year’s snow pack contains
some very weak layers that formed in January, and is unusually susceptible to
this type of slide. While there are only
isolated places where these deep avalanches could occur today, the slides would
be large and dangerous. Avalanche activity would be most likely on and below
steep rocky areas, especially where glide cracks are visible. Full depth glide cracks have been observed in
upper Stairs and Broad’s Fork where the snow is underlain by smooth, rocky
slabs.
Bottom Line:
The avalanche danger is LOW this morning, increasing to MODERATE by
(
Same as
(
Same as
Mountain Weather:
It’s
our last day in the current weather pattern, with mostly sunny skies and a cool
northwesterly flow. Highs at 8000’ will
be near 50, with 10,000’ temperatures in the upper 20’s. Ridgetop winds will
be 10-15 mph out of the west northwest.
We should see increasing clouds this afternoon as the flow shifts to the
southwest ahead of Wednesday’s storm. At
this time, the rain/snow line for Wednesday is projected to be near 8000’.
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. We
have a new avalanche and backcountry observation page that we’d like to
encourage folks to try out. It can be
found on our home website at avalanche.org. You can also fax an observation to
801-524-6301.
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: