In
partnership with: The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center, Utah Department of
Public Safety Division of Comprehensive Emergency Management,
To have this advisory automatically e-mailed to you each day free of charge, visit: http://www.mailermailer.com/x?oid=16351h
For photos of avalanches and
avalanche phenomenon, visit: http://www.avalanche.org/%7Euac/photos_03-04.htm (Updated
2/18)
Photos sent in by observers
throughout the season visit: http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/obphotos/observer.html (Updated
2/20)
For a list of backcountry avalanche activity, visit: http://www.avalanche.org/%7Euac/Avalanche_List.htm (Updated 2/18)
Avalanche advisory
Friday, February 20, 2004, 7:30 am
Good
morning, this is Andrew McLean with the
Current Conditions:
After getting all hot and soggy, the snowpack cooled
off yesterday with dropping temperatures and a fresh coating of new snow. The Tri Canyons picked up 8 -11” while the
Avalanche Conditions:
The past week has had a roller coaster of avalanche conditions, from wet slides to hard slabs and now we can add wind slabs on top of that. The snow and wind shut down around 5:00pm yesterday evening, but not before creating 1- 2’ deep wind deposits along the ridgelines. This wind transported snow fell on a crust from our warm weather a few days ago and will be sensitive to a human trigger. Cracking and 50’ wide shallow soft slabs were common in the backcountry yesterday and will still be active today. You’ll want to avoid those large, puffy looking pillows of hollow sounding snow just below ridgelines. The moderate temperatures and strong winds have created crisp, snappy cornices that will be effective backcountry bombs, but may break back further than expected. These wind slabs should stabilize fairly quickly with today’s warming trend, but you’ll want to give them a wide berth just in case.
Another area of concern is the widely differing snowpack depth in the Wasatch mountains. If you are getting into lower elevations, especially on the eastern side of the range, be alert for a shallow snowpack with much weaker snow.
Photo: Nature’s four-legged beacons in training.
Bottom
Line for the Wasatch Range, including the
There is a moderate danger of human triggered avalanches on slopes steeper than 35 degrees in upper elevation terrain with recent deposits of wind drifted snow. In wind sheltered areas with slopes less steep than 35 degrees, there is a low danger.
Bottom
Line for the
Due to the stronger winds, the
Mountain Weather:
An
active storm pattern is in store for the next two weeks, with the first pulse
expected to arrive tomorrow evening, followed by a second on Sunday night. With a southerly flow, the
For specific digital forecasts for the
General Information:
The
Wasatch Powderbird Guides were grounded for the last two days and will be
flying in Mineral Fork,
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.
Evelyn Lees will update this advisory Saturday morning.
Thanks for calling.
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