Wasatc h
Cache National Forest
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Avalanche advisory
Thursday,
February 06, 2003
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Good Morning. This is Bruce Tremper with the
Current Conditions:
It’s bitterly cold in the
mountains this morning with below zero temperatures both on the higher peaks
and well below zero in the high mountain valleys. Backcountry snow conditions remain excellent
on all aspects with a slight buried sun crust on south facing slopes.
Avalanche Conditions:
With hoards of powder-hungry people
out yesterday testing lots of different slopes, it’s not too surprising that three
different people found slopes that erupted into action. One skier tickled an east-facing, shallow,
rocky area in Toledo Chute above the town of
All of these slides were in
thin snowpack areas and they broke within the old faceted snow beneath the
chocolate brown crust formed from last week’s warm temperatures, wind and
dust. Yesterday we also looked at
several other recent avalanches in the same areas, which all fit this same
description. I think that total snow
depth is an important key in most, of these avalanches. Remember that thin snow means weak snow and
when we drape a fairly uniform blanket of new snow over the mountains, it’s the
thin snowpack areas that get cranky. You
find thin snowpacks mostly in places which have already
avalanched in the past month or two, near wind-blown ridges or steep, rocky
areas. Now that everything is buried,
you need x-ray vision to know which is which, so it seems like a bit of a crap
shoot. In these conditions, one handy
trick I practice like a nervous tick: I turn my ski pole upside down and push
the handle end into the snowpack about a hundred times per day to test the
depth of the snow. If I can hit the
ground with my pole, or if I can feel some nasty hollow layers below I dig down
to see what kind of monkey business is going on. Although most slopes are staying in place
quite well, there are enough booby traps out there to make things tricky and
scary, so this is not the time to get too bold.
Although there’s only localized places where
you can trigger an avalanche, most of these avalanches are hard slabs breaking
two or more feet deep and involving a lot of snow.
Bottom Line (SLC,
If you’re headed above 9,000’
on northwest, north northeast or east facing slopes that are steeper than about
35 degrees: In shallow snowpack areas, with
a foot or more of new snow, the danger is CONSIDERABLE meaning that human triggered
avalanches are probable. In thicker
snowpack areas, there is a MODERATE
danger of triggering an avalanche into deeper weak layers . Also, today if the sun heats up the snow you
will find the usual damp, loose sluffs on south facing slopes and, as always,
avoid steep slopes with recent wind drifts. On slopes less steep the 35
degrees, most slope below about 9,000’ and south facing slopes without wind
drifts or sun affects, the avalanche danger is generally LOW.
Mountain Weather:
The word for the day is
cold. Ridge top temperatures are below
zero this morning and will barely creep above zero in the heat of the day and
we’ll be lucky to reach 10 degrees down at 8,000’. Overnight, the mercury will plunge back down
below zero and could get 20 below in the bottoms of the mountain basins. The good news is that the ridge top winds
will remain light from the north and east and we will have mostly sunny skies
with occasional clouds drifting by from the north, some of which may give us a
few light snow flurries at times. For
the extended forecast, the cold should remain with slowly warming temperatures
by the weekend. It looks like we will
return to more reasonable temperatures and a chance for more snow by mid week.
General Information:
Wasa
We will be giving a free
avalanche awareness talk at Milo Sport on Wednesday, February 12th
at
The Banff Film Festival is
coming to Kingsbury Hall February 12th and 13th, with
proceeds donated to the Friends of the
The Friends of the
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.
Tom Kimbrough will update this advisory by
Thanks for calling!
________________________________________________________________________
National
Weather Service - Salt Lake City - Snow.
For an explanation of avalanche
danger ratings: