Wasatc h
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
12, 2003 7:30 am
Good morning, this is
Current Conditions:
If you got out into the
backcountry last year, the current snowpack will seem very familiar. Great turning conditions exist above 8,000’ but
vary dramatically with the aspect. South
facing is a mix of wet snow and supportable crust, while East and West have
some creamy settled powder. North facing
is your best bet for deeper coverage and lighter snow, but presents a greater
avalanche hazard at the higher elevations.
Sheltered, lower angle slopes currently have fun, fast powder and
generally good coverage.
Avalanche Conditions:
The high elevation, shady Northwest
through Northeast facing instabilities from Monday have started to subside, but
are still present. Cracking and settling
were observed yesterday at 10,000’ on wind loaded north facing slopes. By kicking off cornices, it was possible to
trigger avalanches with initial fractures depths of roughly 12”. These are hard to get going, but once they
do, they are fast moving, running full track and accumulating large deposition
piles. They are running on buried
surface hoar and with additional loading from overnight winds, I would expect
them to remain sensitive throughout the day.
There is also some graupel mixed in with the snowpack which has been
pooling beneath cliffs and could cause isolated pockets of instability.
Sunny slopes that have received
a more pronounced heating cycle have seen quite a bit of settling. There is a dense 12” slab on Southeast
through Southwest aspects on top of a sun crust. It takes quite a bit of effort to get this moving,
but once it does, it is a clean, fast sheer.
Due to low snow depth and abundant anchors, this shouldn’t be a problem,
but avoid steep sunny slopes with smooth underlying surfaces.
Bottom Line (
Above 9,500’ on slopes facing
NE through NW steeper than 35 degrees there remains a CONSIDERABLE avalanche
hazard, especially in wind loaded, ridgetop
locations. Other steep upper elevation
slopes have a MODERATE hazard. Below 9,500’ the hazard is generally LOW. As always avoid
any recent deposits of wind drifted snow.
Mountain Weather:
A high pressure system will be on top of us today, making for mostly
sunny and mild conditions. Expect light
winds, which will build throughout the day and temperatures in the mid to high
twenties at the 8,000’ level. A few inches of wet snow are expected tonight as
this system starts to break down as a low approaches from
General
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.
Evelyn
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