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
The
Utah Avalanche Center
Home page is: http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/
Avalanche advisory
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Good Morning. This is Bruce Tremper with the
Current Conditions:
Today would be yet another great
day to escape from the frosty, carbon monoxide smog and shopping sprees in the
valley and get up into the warm, sunny mountains. With a very strong temperature inversion, overnight
lows this morning are an amazing 38 degrees at 10,000’ and 33 degrees at 11,000’. And today will be the last, nice, sunny day
for a few days, so enjoy these summer-like conditions while you can. Yes, you have to get above 9,500 feet on
northerly facing slopes to find decent snow, but amazingly enough I’ve still been
finding quite delightful 4-8 inches of soft, recrystalized snow between 9,000
and 10,000 feet in wind and sun sheltered slopes that are not too steep. The total snow depth is only about two feet deep
at the most, so continue to use old equipment you don’t mind scratching up too
much. Any slope exposed to the sun or
the wind, however, is crusted and rocky.
Avalanche Conditions:
There’s not much happening in
the avalanche world these days with continued low danger on all slopes. The surface of the snow on wind and sun
sheltered slopes continues to rot away and it has become extremely weak, sugary,
faceted snow that runs thorough your fingers like salt crystals. On very steep slopes it sometimes runs down
the slope in loose, sluffs, which could take you over a cliff or into a tree if
you’re not careful. If nothing else, it’s
a good education to get out and see this extremely weak snow so that you’ll know--beyond
any shadow of a doubt--why you won’t want to be anywhere near them after they
get a load of new or wind-blown snow.
Also, today you may see some very localized wet sluffs on steep sun
exposed slopes. Otherwise, everything is
staying in place quite well.
Bottom Line (SLC,
The avalanche danger is
generally LOW today, with very isolated loose sluffs of dry faceted on
very steep shady and very isolated wet sluffs on steep sunny slopes.
Mountain Weather:
It will be yet another
delightful summer-like day in the mountains, with warm temperatures and sunny
skies. But get out early because we have
some high clouds approaching from the south for this afternoon and evening. Highs at 8,000 feet will be in the mid 40’s
with overnight lows in the mid 20’s. On
the ridge tops, highs today will be in the mid to upper 30’s with 10-15 mph
winds from the southeast. A closed low
in
General Information:
A great Christmas present for
someone you love is an avalanche beacon.
To help you decide which one to buy, we have posted a couple recent tests
of various brands of avalanche beacons on the web. Point your browser to www.avalanche.org and click on
To report backcountry snow
and avalanche conditions, especially if you observe or trigger an avalanche,
call (801) 524-5304 or 1-800-662-4140, or email to [email protected] or fax 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.
Ethan Greene will update this advisory by 7:30 on
Sunday morning.
Thanks for calling!
________________________________________________________________________
National Weather
Service - Salt Lake City - Snow.
For an explanation of
avalanche danger ratings: