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
3/25)
Photos sent in by observers
throughout the season visit: http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/obphotos/observer.html (Updated
3/12)
For a list of backcountry avalanche
activity, visit: http://www.avalanche.org/%7Euac/Avalanche_List.htm (Updated
3/31)
Early morning preliminary information by about 6:00 am: 801-364-1591
Avalanche advisory
Wednesday, March 31, 2004, 7:30 am
Good
morning, this is Evelyn Lees with the
Current Conditions:
The warm, drought promoting, snow melting weather continues. Overnight, under mostly clear skies, temperatures cooled only into the mid 30’s to low 40’s at the 9 to 11000’ elevations. The southwesterly winds have decreased, and are generally in the 5 to 15 mph range, with gusts to 30.
The variable snow surface conditions include everything but large expanses of soft, dry powder. The majority of slopes are sun or wind affected, with a combination of both breakable and supportable crusts. The best chance of finding crusts that will soften but stay supportable may be on mid elevation slopes and on steeper south to southwest facing slopes.
Avalanche Conditions:
There was one human triggered slide reported from the backcountry yesterday. It was late in the day on the northwest face of Gobblers Knob, involved the new snow running on the old crust, and ran the full length of the slope. I’m assuming it was a damp sluff, and when I get a few more details, I’ll post them on the avalanche list later this morning. Today, increasing winds and clouds should help off set the warmer temperatures and keep a lid on natural wet activity. But the snow will definitely get damp and soggy enough that loose, wet sluffs can be triggered by people on steep slopes, and these sluffs have the potential to be long running due to the slick, underlying crusts. So as always, when the snow gets wet and sloppy, move to a different aspect and stay off of and out from under steep slopes. Yesterday, none of the isolated old wind drifts seemed sensitive, but still approach steep slopes with rounded waves of wind blown snow with caution.
Bottom
Line for the
The avalanche danger is LOW this morning. With daytime heating, the danger will rise to moderate on steep, sunny slopes and all steep low elevation slopes.
Mountain Weather:
A warm southerly flow will continue over northern
For specific digital forecasts for the
General Information:
The Wasatch Powderbird Guides flew in Days and Cardiff Forks yesterday, and will have an alpine tour from White Pine to Coal Pit 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.
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.
I will update this advisory Thursday morning.
Thanks for calling.
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