In partnership with: The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center, Utah Department of Public Safety
Division of Comprehensive Emergency Management, Salt Lake County, and Utah
State Parks
To have this advisory automatically e-mailed to you each day free of charge, click HERE.
Good morning, this is Bruce Tremper with the
We’re giving a free avalanche awareness talk on Thursday, the 18th, at the Sandy REI at 7pm.
Current Conditions:
Today is another good day to call in sick from work.
Temperatures have warmed rapidly as the
high pressure ridge builds over us. Temperatures
along the ridge tops are 20 degrees warmer this morning than yesterday morning
and they are in the mid to upper 20’s with a 10-20 mph wind from the west. There’s still plenty of delightful powder
snow, about a foot deep, on all the slopes facing the north and east quadrants
of the compass today, but the south facing slopes have a sun crust on them from
yesterday. With high pressure and warm temperatures
expected for the rest of the week, the snow conditions should progressively
deteriorate.
Avalanche Conditions:
Yesterday, a lot of people jumped into steep slopes
of all kinds and there was only one human triggered avalanche we know of. Early yesterday morning, a lone skier
triggered a soft slab avalanche in Toledo Chute, which is an east-southeast
facing slope across the street from Alta.
We don’t have a first hand report, but the tracks tell most of the
story. Luckily it broke at their feet
and they were not caught, but it entrained copious amounts of snow and put down
a very deep debris pile at the bottom you wouldn’t want to be buried in. The fracture was about a foot deep, 40 feet
wide on a steep 40-45 degree slope and it broke either just above or just below
the rain crust from last Saturday. Click
HERE for photos. In general, though, the weak layers seem to
have adjusted to their loads and the snow remains well behaved after being
skied and ridden by many dozens of volunteer stability testers. I’m still worried, however, about some of the
steep slopes with wind deposits, mostly on the above tree line, wind exposed
ridges where they still feel slabby and suspicious to me. Also of note, if you’re headed outside of the
Bottom Line (
In isolated, steep, slopes with deposits of wind drifted snow, the danger is MODERATE today. You will find these mostly on very high, wind exposed ridges. On non wind-loaded slopes the danger is generally LOW.
Click here
for a photo of a small human triggered slide in the Provo area
mountains on 12/15/03.
Mountain Weather:
We will have one of those warm, high pressure ridges over us for the rest of the week, which will bring very warm temperatures to the mountains and smog in the valley. The high today along the ridge tops should get up into the lower 30’s and into the lower 40’s down at 8,000’. Ridge top winds should remain light from the west, turning southwest later in the day and tomorrow. We should have a few high clouds go by today and tomorrow. The extended forecast calls for a weak disturbance on about Friday and a somewhat stronger one on Sunday.
3-Day Table |
3-Day Graph |
7-Day Table |
For specific digital forecasts for selected mountain areas from the
National Weather Service, click the links below or choose your own specific
location at the National
Weather Service Digital Forecast Page:
General
Information:
Yesterday,
the Wasatch Powderbird Guides flew in
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
Friends of the
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
Lees will update
this advisory on 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