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Good Morning. This is Bruce Tremper with the
Current Conditions:
With a big, fat full moon in
a clear sky, both last night and tonight, these are great nights to get out in
the mountains and enjoy life. It’s been
mighty blustery these past few days, especially Wednesday, with strong winds,
mostly from the northwest. This has
decorated the above-tree line ridges in a Martian sandblasted decor. There’s no lack of sun crusts on the slopes
that face the south half of the compass.
Believe it or not, there’s still lots of nice,
soft, dry, recrystalized snow that could pass for
Avalanche Conditions:
The main avalanche problem
today is the surface layers of wind drifted snow. These “wind slabs”, as we call them, tend to
be hard and hollow-sounding but they can be soft as well. Like a rattlesnake, they almost always warn
you of their presence. Many of them
crack under your weight, sound hollow, feel slabby and most are hard and
stubborn. They have a smooth, rounded,
chalky, wind-drifted appearance and if you find one on a steep slope, they are
definitely to be avoided today. Much of
the above-tree line terrain is covered with them while others are very
pockety. One spot may be perfectly safe
while another a few feet away will crack under you and take you for a ride.
The second, and much less
serious, problem is our old enemy from throughout this winter—the deeply buried
layers of weak, sugary, faceted snow. These
layers have significantly settled and adjusted to their load in most places and
it’s been nearly a week since any people have triggered an avalanche on this
layer. Without any wind slabs on top, I
think human-triggered avalanches on the deep layers will be quite rare today,
but with a wind slab on top, an avalanche could easily have enough punch to step
down into these deeper weak layers, making a much larger and more dangerous
avalanche.
Bottom Line (SLC,
There is a MODERATE avalanche danger
on any steep slope with recent deposits of wind drifted snow. This means that human-triggered avalanches are
possible. In terrain without wind
drifts, there is generally a LOW
danger with localized pockets of MODERATE danger on slopes facing the north half of the compass,
plus east facing slopes, above about 8,500’ that approach about 40 degrees
steepness.
Bottom Line (
There is a CONSIDERABLE avalanche
danger on steep slopes with recent deposits of wind drifted snow at elevations
above timberline. There is also a MODERATE danger of triggering a deep slab avalanche on slopes
facing northwest, north, northeast and east, above about 8,500’ that are
steeper than 35 degrees. On south facing
slopes without recent deposits wind deposits and slopes less than steep than 30
degrees, the avalanche danger is generally LOW.
Mountain Weather:
The Talkingheads
weather continues with the same as it ever was.
Continued clear with scattered high clouds going by at
times and another beautiful full moon tonight. Ridge top winds will blow around 20 mph from
the northwest this morning, swi
As for the extended forecast:
we will see some increasing clouds on Monday in advance of a weak system going
mostly north of us on Tuesday. Then, we will
have another slightly stronger system on Thursday and Friday. I hope I’m wrong, but don’t expect too much
from these systems as we are still stuck under a ridge and these systems have
to break through the ridge to reach us, which tends to keep them on the wimpy
side. We still don’t see any significant
snow in the forecast until at least the end of the month.
General Information:
Wasa
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
Thanks for calling!
________________________________________________________________________
National
Weather Service - Salt Lake City - Snow.
For an explanation of
avalanche danger ratings: