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Cache National Forest
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Avalanche advisory
Saturday,
March 29, 2003
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Good Morning. This is Bruce Tremper with the
Current Conditions:
With a bluebird day and
continued cold temperatures, today would be an excellent day for yet another
day of great powder. And, you should
probably get it while you can because temperatures will warm dramatically over
the next couple days and all our nice snow will turn to mashed potatoes in a
hurry, as it tends to do this time of year.
Yesterday, people were reporting 6 inches to a foot of nice powder on
northerly facing slopes above 9,000’. Most
of the sun exposed slopes got a sun crust on them yesterday and most of the snow
below about 8,500’ got damp or wet and is now crusted. This morning, ridge top temperatures remain mighty
chilly, around 10 degrees, which is just a couple degrees warmer than yesterday
morning. Ridge top winds are from the
west 10-15 mph. There is some wind
damaged snow along the highest peaks and ridges, but most of the snow down off
the highest ridges was not affected very much by Wednesday’s very strong winds.
Avalanche Conditions:
We have two main avalanche
problems today. First, Wednesday’s very
strong wind created some wind slabs along the upper elevation peaks and ridges. By yesterday, they seem to have settled out
fairly well and people reported that they could find some localized places they
could crack something out when you jumped on them but for the most part they
were not sensitive to human triggers.
Most of these wind slabs are covered up by a few inches of new snow, so
they will be harder to see. But you
should continue to treat them with respect today. In non wind drifted terrain, the new snow has
bonded to the old crusts fairly well.
Your second avalanche problem
today will be localized wet sluffs and perhaps a few wet slabs on the steep slopes
that heat up in the sun. Although all
the sun exposed slopes got wet yesterday morning, the afternoon clouds and cold
temperatures kept the snow from getting too soggy. Today, we won’t have any clouds and
temperatures will be a few degrees warmer than yesterday, so the snow should
really get baked, especially on southeast through southwest facing slopes. In other words, today is not a good day to
build a kicker or have a picnic today in a steep, south-facing gully in the
heat of the afternoon. As always, get
off of, and out from underneath, any steep slope when the snow becomes wet and
soggy.
Bottom Line (SLC,
Today there is a MODERATE danger of human
triggered avalanches on slopes steeper than 35 degrees with deposits of wind
drifted snow. On slopes without wind
drifting, the danger is generally LOW. Also, the danger of
wet sluffs and wet slabs will rise to MODERATE on and below steep
sun exposed slopes. Finally, there is
the usual MODERATE
danger of deeper avalanches breaking into old layers of faceted snow on steep
slopes above about 9,500’ especially on northerly through easterly facing slopes.
If you are headed to the western
Mountain Weather:
We will have clear skies and
10.000’ temperatures will rise from a finger-numbing 10 degrees to the mid 20’s
and 8,000’ temperatures should rise to the mid 30’s. Ridge top winds will remain fairly light
10-15 mph from the west and northwest.
We should have clear skies again tonight with some scattered high clouds
on Sunday.
For the extended forecast, we
will have dramatic warming on Sunday and Monday. By Monday, 10,000’ temperatures will rise to
the 40’s and 8,000’ temperatures will be in the mid 50’s with high clouds to
make a nice greenhouse effect. Then,
winter is not over yet. We will have
strong winds on Tuesday and Wednesday with some snow on Wednesday and Thursday
and then it looks like another large, cold storm for next weekend.
General Information:
Today, the
To report backcountry snow
and avalanche conditions, especially if you observe or trigger an avalanche,
please leave a message on our answer machine at (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: