Wasatc h
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:
We’re still doing afternoon
updates until winter decides to cooperate.
I’m one of those terminally
optimistic people who think that there’s no such thing as bad snow conditions,
it’s just that some days are better than others. But these conditions are beginning to even
test my resolve. Yesterday, one of the
Wasa
I wouldn’t quite describe it
that way, but unless you are above about 9,000’ in elevation, the conditions
are kind of a punishing affair, but there actually are some pockets of soft,
settled, recrystalized snow in upper elevation, wind and sun sheltered
slopes. It’s been a month now since we’ve
had any significant snow. Nearly all the
snow is melted off the south facing slopes and even the upper elevation north
facing slopes have rotted away so that they are nearly bottomless depth hoar
and unsupportable in many places. The
surface snow is still the weakest snow with several inches of extremely sugary,
faceted snow, topped off with what Evelyn calls “trophy-sized” surface hoar crystals
the nearly size of potato chips.
Avalanche Conditions:
To make a slab avalanche, you
need both a slab and a weak layer. Right
now, we certainly have no lack of weak layers, but there’s absolutely no
slab. Consequently, there is very little
avalanche danger. On the steep, north
facing slopes, some of the surface snow is so weak it sometimes makes a loose, sluff
under you when you travel, which isn’t too much of a problem unless it knocks
you off your feet and sends you over the rocks or cliffs.
Bottom Line (SLC,
The avalanche danger is
generally LOW today.
Avalanche Tip of the Day:
If nothing else, you should
get out in the next several days and draw a mental map of where there’s snow
and where there’s bare ground. Next time
we get significant snow, we are almost certain to have widespread avalanches on
all the slopes with pre-existing snow and very little avalanche danger where
new snow falls directly on the bare ground.
Remember that it’s always a lot easier to see weak layers BEFORE they
get buried than afterwards.
Mountain Weather:
Today will be yet another
great day to get up above the choking layers of thick smog in the valleys and
get into the clean air, warm temperatures and sunshine in the mountains. With mostly sunny skies, the 8,000’ high temperatures
should rise up to near 40 today with the ridge top temperatures in the mid 20’s
with ridge top winds 15 mph from the northwest.
The more interesting news,
however, is the weather forecast. We
should have a weak system on about Wednesday, which should give us a few clouds
and perhaps a snowflake or two. Then,
the long range computer models continue to say we will have a change in the weather
pattern by next weekend and they are even bold enough to forecast a stronger
storm. However, it’s still a long way
away and this type of pattern tends to make storms split around us at the last
minute, so I wouldn’t get too excited quite yet.
General Information:
I will be giving an avalanche
talk at REI this Tueaday, December 10th at
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 Salt Lake,
then on Education. At the same location,
you can find a complete list of avalanche talks and multi-day classes.
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.
I will update this advisory on Monday.
Thanks for calling!
________________________________________________________________________
National Weather Service - Salt
Lake City - Snow.
For an explanation of
avalanche danger ratings: