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

Wednesday, January 22, 2003

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To see graph of the current snow profile CLICK HERE (Updated 1-21-03)

Good Morning. This is Evelyn Lees with the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center with your backcountry avalanche and mountain weather advisory. Today is Wednesday, January 22, 2003, and it’s 7:30 in the morning. This advisory is brought to you by our partner, the Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center, generously supported by Black Diamond Equipment.

UDOT will be sighting in the gun in Provo Canyon on Thursday, January 23. There will be intermittent road closures starting at10 am, and ice climbing will be closed.

Current Conditions:

Under partly cloudy skies, temperatures are in the teens and low 20’s this morning. Winds are from the northwest, in the 15 to 20 mph range, except for the most exposed locations where speeds are in the 30’s with gusts in the 40’s. The Wasatch mountains are starting to look like a poorly decorated birthday cake – there’s a bit of snow-white icing on the top, but someone forgot to frost the sides. At the mid and upper elevations, there is some soft recrystalized snow on sheltered slopes amid the wind and sun crusts. At the lower elevations and in shallow snowpack areas, the snowpack is becoming unsupportable and punchy.

Avalanche Conditions:

With the last respectable storm having occurred back in 2002, the snowpack is sinking into the same lethargy as most backcountry travelers. Today, there are only isolated areas where a person could trigger a slide. The most likely would be on a steep slope with a recent or old deposit of wind drifted snow. Even where these hard smooth drifts are shallow, being knocked off your feet and taken for a ride could be a nasty experience. Loose sluffs in the weakening surface snow are also becoming large enough to take you for a ride. And finally, never let your guard down when there are buried faceted weak layers. There may still be isolated areas where a person could trigger a deeper slide.

Bottom Line (SLC, Park City, Ogden and Logan Area Mountains):

There is a MODERATE danger of triggering an avalanche on any steep slope with deposits of wind drifted snow, and a LOW or isolated danger elsewhere.

Western Uintas – call 1-800-648-7433 or click here for weekend and holiday forecasts.

Mountain Weather:

The high pressure ridge is strengthening over the area today, bringing a continuation of warm and dry weather. Skies will be mostly sunny by this afternoon, with highs in the low 40’s at 8,000’ and the low 20’s at 10,000. Winds will be from the west-northwest, 15 to 25 mph along the ridges. Partly cloudy skies tonight, with lows in the 20’s. Desperation may set in as the ridge remains over the western US, with only clouds expected from the weak disturbances that do manage to move through it.

General Information:

Wasatch Powderbird Guides will fly two avalanche classes into Grizzly gulch today.

A correction and update on Monday’s unfortunate avalanche accident in Canada. There were 7 avalanche fatalities, with 3 being listed as Americans and 4 as Canadians. For more on this accident, or any other accident, you can visit the web site www.avalanche.org and click on Accidents.

The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center, supported by Voile and Milosport, are offering an intensive three-day avalanche class February 15 – 17. Half of the spots are reserved for snowboarders. To sign up call the Black Diamond retail store at 801-278-0233.

On Sunday February 2^nd there will be a fundraiser for the Wasatch Backcountry Rescue avalanche dog program. Tickets are available at the Black Diamond retail store. Please call 435-615-2226 for more information and additional ticket locations.

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.

Bruce Tremper will update this advisory by 7:30 on Thursday morning.

Thanks for calling!

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National Weather Service - Salt Lake City - Snow.

For an explanation of avalanche danger ratings:

http://www.avalanche.org/usdanger.htm