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Avalanche Center, Utah Department of Public Safety Division of Comprehensive
Emergency Management,
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Avalanche advisory
Wednesday, January 28, 2004, 7:30 am
Good
morning, this is Evelyn Lees with the
Current
Conditions:
A very weak disturbance is moving through
the area this morning, producing light snow, and the mountains have a fresh
dusting of 2 to 4”. Winds are from a
westerly direction, and have decreased to about 10 mph. Only the higher peaks have hourly averages of
20 mph or more. Temperatures are in the
upper teens to low 20’s. Sunday’s snow
has become quite slabby and punchy, creating less than perfect snowshoeing,
skiing and boarding conditions.
Avalanche Conditions:
Yesterday, stronger winds in the
Many backcountry travelers are basically uncomfortable with the current snow pack layering – we have a very widespread, weak faceted snow layer efficiently buried and preserved under a decent slab. I must say the current loading pattern makes me down right grumpy - Sunday’s storm was not large enough for widespread activity on the weak layer, and it seems we are just postponing the inevitable avalanche cycle. For today, there are still areas where a person could trigger a slide - most likely on steep slopes that have been more heavily loaded by the wind, or had an originally weaker faceted layer, such as at more sheltered mid and lower elevations. We are expecting a rising avalanche danger tonight into Thursday and again on Friday, with two strong wind events in the forecast.
Bottom
Line for the Wasatch Range, including the
On all slopes steeper than 35 degrees, the
avalanche danger is moderate. Moderate means human triggered avalanches are
possible. Particularly avoid any slope
with wind drifts and steep terrain traps such as gullies. On wind sheltered slopes less steep than 35
degrees, the danger is low.
Mountain Weather:
The
current weak disturbance over northern
For specific digital forecasts for the
General Information:
The
Wasatch Powderbird Guides skied in American Fork,
The Banff Film Festival, a benefit for the Friends
of the
The Friends of the
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.
We will update this advisory Thursday morning.
Thanks for calling.
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