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
3/6)
Photos sent in by observers
throughout the season visit: http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/obphotos/observer.html (Updated
2/24)
For a list of backcountry avalanche
activity, visit: http://www.avalanche.org/%7Euac/Avalanche_List.htm (Updated
3/6)
Early morning preliminary information by 6:00 am: 801-364-1591
Avalanche advisory
Monday, March 08, 2004, 7:30 am
Good
morning, this is Drew Hardesty with the
Current Conditions:
After yesterday’s
skyrocketing temperatures into the mid and upper 40’s up to 9500’, today will
be round two of Beach Blanket Bingo with even warmer temperatures expected. There was only a slight cool-off overnight
with inverted temperatures as overnight lows dropped to 30 and 21 degrees at
10,000’ and 7000’, respectively. The
winds seemed to have blown themselves out and have been less than 10mph from
the northwest. While the conditions were
described as “sublimely miserable” by a friend of mine, you can still find
decent creamy powder on mid elevation sun and wind protected slopes.
Avalanche Conditions:
Just like clockwork, the sunny aspects went off
yesterday and some of the steeper and longer running south facing shots had
impressive wet debris piles under them. Not
to be left out, the lower elevation north facing slopes also got in on the action
as ambient heating on cold snow produced decent debris piles, perhaps most
notably in Ogden and Weber canyons. On
the other side of the coin, there were at least three skier triggered
avalanches in the backcountry, with one natural slide, presumed triggered by
cornice fall. The skier triggered slides
were in No-Name bowl,
off the Park City ridgeline, that was reported to be 2-4’ deep and 100’ wide (notice the
relationship between what naturally slid Saturday in West Monitor with what was
human triggered yesterday); a steep northeast facing rollover in upper Snake
Creek at 8500’ that was 8” and not very wide; and a report of a skier triggered
slide in Toledo Chute that left a decent debris pile down in the transition
zone. The natural was on a south facing
aspect near the Red Rock cliffs area on the
It’s likely that most of the instability from Saturday’s strong winds has settled out, but you may still find a remnant wind slab that you could get to pop out in the odd nook or in steep rocky terrain that has a shallower snowpack. Wet activity will be the primary focus for today, however, as the poor refreeze and warmer temperatures will set the stage for continued problems on the steep sun exposed slopes. The wet activity on the north facing slopes will undoubtedly notch a bit higher in elevation, perhaps to 8000’. So again, if you’re sinking in up past your boot-cuffs, dodging rollerballs and pinwheels, or getting wet push-alanches to pull out on the steeper slopes, it’ll be time to head to a different aspect or back to the car. Finally, cornices will likely be more sensitive today as well.
Bottom
Line for the Wasatch Range, including the
The avalanche danger is generally LOW with just isolated areas where you could pull out an old wind slab. The danger of wet avalanche activity will rise to MODERATE on the steep sun exposed slopes and may again rise to CONSIDERABLE, particularly on slopes that didn’t manage to release yesterday.
Mountain Weather:
We’ll see continued bluebird skies and light northerly winds. 8000’ temps will be in the mid forties with 10,000’ temps rising again to the mid to upper thirties. Tomorrow will be just as warm with a dry cold front expected for Wednesday.
For specific digital forecasts for the
General Information:
Wasatch Powderbird Guides will fly in the Sessions, American Fork, and Cascade areas.
Finally, the annual Wasatch Powderkeg randonnee rally race will be March 20th. You can sign up at the Black Diamond retail store.
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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