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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
SUNDAY, January 11, 2004 7:30 am
Good
morning, this is Drew Hardesty with the
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:
Inversion
temperatures are near freezing at 10,000’ and in the teens at 7 and 8000’. Winds have been light and westerly. Snow surface conditions run the gamut from
wind board and suncrust to soft settled powder and
surface hoar in the more sheltered areas.
Avalanche Conditions:
It was quiet in the backcountry yesterday with no new avalanches reported. The windslabs from mid-week have settled out and stability is generally very good. My concerns for today will be with increasing wet activity on the steep sun-exposed slopes. With daytime heating, cornices may be more sensitive as well.
Also of interest are the glide avalanches from the past couple of days in Broad’s Fork, running probably on Thursday. Glide avalanches typically occur as the entire snowpack glides downhill, pulling away from itself and opening what looks like crevasses, moats, or cracks. They most commonly occur in places where the snowpack is sitting on either a smooth grassy slope or smooth rocky slabs and then lubricated from below by meltwater. Sometimes, these glide cracks catastrophically release, resulting in a large climax avalanche. Places like Broad’s Fork and Stairs Gulch are notorious for these and it’s not uncommon to see large natural glide avalanches in these drainages during a thaw.
Bottom Line for the Wasatch Range, including
the
There is a generally LOW danger. The danger of wet activity will rise to MODERATE over the course of the day.
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 5-15 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 producing only clouds.
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.
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3-Day Table |
3-Day Graph |
7-Day Table |
General Information:
The Wasatch Powderbird Guides flew in Silver, Day’s,
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 another 3-day avalanche workshop over President’ Day weekend, 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.
I will update this advisory Monday morning.
Thanks for calling.
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