Wasatch Cache National Forest

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

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Avalanche advisory

Saturday, January 10, 2004 7:30 am

Good morning, this is Evelyn Lees with the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center with your backcountry avalanche and mountain weather advisory. Today is Saturday, January 10, and it’s 7:30 a.m.

For photos of avalanches and avalanche phenomenon, click HERE.

Photos sent in by observers throughout the season click HERE.

For a list of backcountry avalanche activity, click HERE.

Current Conditions:

Its official – the January thaw is here, with clean, warm air in the mountains and cold, foggy, polluted air in the valleys. It was very warm in the mountains last night, with temperatures at many of the upper elevation stations remaining near or above freezing. Winds are from the southwest, in the 10 to 20 mph range, with stronger gusts across the highest peaks.

On the shady slopes, snow conditions are very good for snowshoeing, skiing, boarding and snow machining in recrystalized powder over a mostly supportable base. All the sunny slopes will be well crusted in the morning, but soften by midday.

Avalanche Conditions:

Interestingly, there were two reports yesterday of more recent deep, hard slab avalanches. One was a natural in Broads Fork, which probably ran on Wednesday or Thursday, triggered by wind loading. It was on Bonkers, a northeast facing slope at about 10,000’, and was reported to be about 8’ deep (click here and here for photos). The other was from resort control work in upper Little Cottonwood, and was 6 feet deep and 150’ wide, north facing, at about 11,000’. I think these slides indicate that in very isolated areas, a large trigger such as a hefty cornice drop or several snow machines on a slope at once might be able to trigger one of these bigger slides.

A more widespread danger today will be the chance of triggering an old wind slab or a loose sluff on a steep slope. Yesterday, one more small human triggered wind slab was reported from the Patsy Marley area that was about 30’ wide and 2 ½ feet deep. The warm temperatures are making the cornices more sensitive and they are breaking out larger and further back than expected. Wet loose snow activity will also continue today, though the final balance between the wind, clouds and sun will determine its extent. With periods of high, thin clouds expected, damp sluffs may also occur on the steep northerly facing slopes at low and mid elevations. So as the day heats up, get off of and out from under steep, sunny slopes.

Bottom Line for the Wasatch Range, including the Salt Lake, Park City, PROVO, and Ogden MOUNTAINS:

In upper elevation, ridgeline areas with slopes steeper than 35 degrees and wind deposits, there is a moderate danger of human triggered avalanches. The avalanche danger will rise to moderate on and below steep sunny slopes as the snow heats up. In other terrain, there is generally a LOW danger. In the Provo mountains, the danger increases with elevation, especially on steep, shady or wind drifted slopes above 9,500’.

Uinta Mountains: For Uinta specific information, click on Western Uintas on the advisory page or phone 1-800-648-7433.

Mountain Weather:

High pressure is in control of our weather, with near to above freezing temperatures to continue into Monday. Today, there will be mostly sunny skies with some high, thin clouds drifting by. Highs will be in the low 40’s at 8,000’ and the mid 30’s at 10,000’. The winds will remain from the southwest, in the 10 to 20 mph range. Tonight, light southwest winds, with 10,000’ lows once again near freezing. A weak system will approach the area Tuesday, cooling temperatures slightly and bringing a chance for light snow.

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.

3-Day Table	3-Day Graph	7-Day Table
Ogden Mountains	Ogden Mountains	Ogden Mountains
SLC Mountains	SLC Mountains	SLC Mountains
Provo Mountains	Provo Mountains	Provo Mountains

General Information:

The Wasatch Powderbird Guides flew in Cardiff, Mineral, Day’s, Grizzly, Porter, Alexander and the Bountiful Sessions yesterday. Today they will be flying one helicopter in the Silver, Days, Cardiff, Mineral, and White Pine.

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 Utah Avalanche Center is offering two 3-day avalanche workshops which are being held January 17-19 and February 14-16. Information and sign-up sheets are available at the Black Diamond store (2092 E. 3900 S.; 278-0233).

Avalanche Awareness Week is January 18-24th and there are a number of events and presentations. For complete details, visit: www.backcountryawareness.com

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.

Drew Hardesty will update this advisory Sunday morning.

Thanks for calling.

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National Weather Service - Salt Lake City - Snow.

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