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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
moNDAY, January 12, 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:
Another day, another bluebird. Under clear skies, inverted
temperatures are 20 degrees at 8000’ and 10 degrees warmer at 10,500’. Winds remain light and from the west. 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:
While folks were skiing and riding every line that was white yesterday, another very large glide avalanche released in upper Broad’s fork. Witnesses up near Dromedary peak reported that the slide ran down to the valley bottom and covered up a skin track with 3-4’ of debris. This accounts for the third glide avalanche in Broad’s Fork in the past five days. Wet activity also increased as well, with many south facing rocky chutes in Little Cottonwood running far and piling up debris in the flats below. As our warming trend began on the 9th, it’s not unusual to have a marked increase in wet activity by the third day. So again, keep a wary eye on wet activity as the day progresses on the steep, sunny slopes. Frankly, for January, it feels a little odd to have a generally LOW danger except for the wet activity and except for Broad’s, Stairs, and possibly upper-west Mill B where the potential for glide avalanches remains.
Bottom Line for the Wasatch Range, including
the
There is a generally LOW danger. The danger of wet activity will rise to CONSIDERABLE over the course of the day.
Mountain Weather:
Blue skies again over the soup with light westerly winds and balmy temperatures. 8000’ temps will reach into the forties again today with 10,000’ temperatures hitting into the upper thirties and low forties. Clear skies should be the rule into Thursday when a weak storm arrives that may give us a couple inches of snow and provide the mixing we need to clear out the valleys.
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 American Fork yesterday and are headed there again for today.
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.
There will be a showing of ‘Spirit of the Snow’,
Dave O’Leske’s movie about the history and challenges
of backcountry skiing on Wednesday, January 21st at 7pm. The showing will be at the
The Friends of the
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.
Andrew McLean will update this advisory Tuesday morning.
Thanks for calling.
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