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

: http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/

Avalanche advisory

wEDNESDAY. November 5, 2003 7:30 am

Good morning, this is Drew Hardesty with the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center with your avalanche and mountain weather advisory. Today is Wednesday, November 05, 2003, and it’s 7:30 a.m.

Current Conditions:

The mountains picked up another inch or two during the day yesterday and it’s lightly snowing as of 6am. Coming in on a westerly flow, the storms affecting Utah since last week have left a relatively even blanket of snow from Ogden to Provo and along the Park City and Cottonwood ridgelines. Two and a half to three and a half feet of settled snow can be found above 8000’ with some of the best early season turning and riding conditions found in the last couple of years. It’s great to drive up the canyons and see cars buried in snow. While plenty of rocks and stumps await the reckless, snow settlement over the past couple days has built a more solid foundation for trailbreaking and downhill recreation. Snowmachines might still want to stick to the roads.

Avalanche Conditions:

The shallow soft slab activity reported from the backcountry on Monday settled out yesterday, and today’s backcountry travelers will find a stable snowpack. All the new snow over the past week has bonded as a cohesive unit with no time for any weak snow or weak interfaces to develop. Fortunately, the snow from the storms in September and early October melted during the warm spells of mid-October and all of the snow from the past week fell on bare ground. Last season the early season snowfalls fell on loose, unconsolidated recrystalized snow that served as a weak foundation, haunting us for the entire winter. With an active weather pattern forecast for the near future, our hope is that the abundant snowfall will set us up with a stable foundation for the rest of the season.

Remember, as the ski resorts are not yet open, you must treat that terrain as the backcountry with a backcountry snowpack. Good habits save lives: wear beacons and shovels, cross avalanche terrain one at a time and don’t jump into a run when there is someone below you. And don’t ruin your winter with an early season knee injury in the relatively shallow snow conditions.

Bottom Line:

Today there is a LOW danger of both natural and human triggered avalanches. As always, be on the lookout for changing weather conditions. If we get more snow than forecasted today or the winds start to pick up and begin drifting the snow, the hazard will rise and you should adjust your decisions accordingly.

Mountain Weather:

Moist westerly flow continues into today. We ought to be able to squeeze a couple more inches out a weak system passing through the Wasatch today and tonight. We’ll get a break in the action tomorrow into Friday with another storm lined up for the weekend and again early next week. 8000’ temperatures today will be in the low twenties with 10,000’ temperatures in the mid-teens. Winds will remain light and westerly.

General Information:

Don’t miss the annual ski swap at REI this weekend but on by the Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center. You can check in any backcountry or cross country equipment Thursday and Friday evenings and the swap opens at 9:00 am on Saturday morning. Call 365-5522 for more information.

If you are getting into the backcountry, please give us a call and let us know what you’re seeing, especially if you trigger an avalanche. You can leave a message at 524-5304 or 1-800-662-4140. Or you can e-mail an observation to uac@avalanche .org, or you can fax an observation 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.

We will update this advisory Thursday morning.

Thanks for calling!

_____________________________________________________________________________

For more detailed weather information go to our Mountain Weather Advisory

National Weather Service - Salt Lake City - Snow.

For an explanation of avalanche danger ratings:

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