Wasatch
Cache National Forest
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Avalanche advisory
ThursDAY, April 11, 2002 07:30 AM
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Good morning, this is Ethan
Greene with the
Current Conditions:
Yesterday was a bit dreary
with rain and snow in the mountains.
Areas above about 8,500’ picked up an inch of dense snow once the rain
stopped. Overnight under mostly cloudy
skies, temperatures dipped to about 30 degrees at 7,000’ and into the mid 20’s
at 10,000’. The winds have been fairly
calm below about 8,000’. In upper
elevation areas the winds have been from the west in 15 mph range.
I suspect we had another
shallow refreeze last night. Yesterday’s
rain dampened the snow surface up to at least 9,500’. The snow is crusted on most aspects at all
elevations. Above about 8,000’ the
crusts are supportable on all but the shady upper elevation slopes. Below about 7,000’ the snow
mostly unsupportable.
Avalanche Conditions:
For better or worse it feels
like spring out there. In low and some
mid elevation areas the snow is damp to the ground and yesterday’s rain made
the surface snow soggy. In thin snowpack
areas the entire snowpack is damp and faceted, which makes for less than pleasant
traveling and lots unsupportable snow.
Cool nights with shallow freezes are adding strength to the snowpack,
but this strength is quickly eroded with daytime heating. Traveling under steep rock slabs (like those
in Broads Fork and Stairs Gulch) is not recommended and terrain traps at mid
and low elevations should be avoided.
Above about 10,000’ the mid
pack is still dry, but this warm weather is causing it to dampen quickly. In these areas the snow remains mostly
stable, but as the faceted snow becomes damp it will lose strength. The deep slab instability that has plagued us
since January has been quiet lately, but will again rear its ugly head as free
water penetrates the buried weak layers.
The chances of triggering a deep slab avalanche will be isolated today,
but consequences remain severe.
Bottom Line:
Today the avalanche danger is
generally LOW but there is a MODERATE danger of
wet sluffs and slabs on steep slopes below about 9,000 feet, especially thin
rocky areas. If you are sinking into the
snow past your boot tops avoid steep slopes and terrain traps such as cliffs
and gullies.
(
Same as
(
Same as
Mountain Weather:
A
series of weak disturbances will move through northern
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.
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: