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Avalanche advisory
Monday, February 09, 2004, 7:30 am
Good
morning, this is Drew Hardesty with the
The Banff Film Festival, a benefit for the Friends
of the
The Friends of the
Current Conditions:
Under mostly cloudy skies, temperatures are in the low teens and single digits at 8,000’ and 10,000’. The winds are just about calm under the northerly flow, with the most exposed anemometers reading less than 10mph. Storm totals across the range from Saturday’s storm look like 10-16” in Big and Little Cottonwood and about 8” in the outlying areas. Riding and turning conditions are excellent, with the best snow found on the north side of the compass and in more sheltered areas.
Avalanche Conditions:
Most of the problems from yesterday were in the
lower elevations as the benches even received about 8-10” of snow in favored
spots. One party touring up by
For today, my concerns will be with continued sluffing on the steeper slopes and the possibility of finding a remnant wind drift from Saturday’s strong southerly pre-frontal winds. Still tickling my spine, however, are the buried weak layers from January, now buried about 1-2’ down and perhaps most problematic on northwest-east facing slopes between 7500’ and 9800’. These, as well as isolated areas where the snowpack is unusually shallow and therefore weak, are still lingering as possible booby traps in certain areas. Frankly, they make me uncomfortable.
.
Bottom
Line for the Wasatch Range, including the
The avalanche danger is moderate today in wind drifted areas at all elevations steeper than 35 degrees. In sheltered areas, the danger is LOW.
Mountain Weather:
It’ll be mostly cloudy with isolated snow showers today turning to partly cloudy by afternoon. 8000’ temperatures will be in the teens with 10,000’ temps in the upper single digits. Winds will be light from the north and then northeast. Next chance of snow looks to be Tuesday night into Wednesday.
For specific digital forecasts for the
General Information:
The Wasatch Powderbird Guides did not fly yesterday and today they will be in American Fork, Snake Creek, Cascade Ridge, and the Bountiful Sessions mountains.
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.
Andrew McLean will update this advisory Tuesday morning.
Thanks for calling.
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