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
Friday, April 02, 2004, 7:30 am
Good
morning, this is Andrew McLean with the
Current Conditions:
It might not be as much fun as Singin’ in the Rain, but the touring in the rain yesterday was delightful. Overnight, some of the higher ski resorts reported a few inches of new pudding, but with the snow level at a stratospheric 14,000’, today will be another slushfest. Expect cloudy skies, scattered rain or snow, a moderate breeze out of the southeast and temperatures in the mid 40’s. If you remember to wax up, the backcountry has fun turning and riding conditions.
Avalanche Conditions:
Our once proud snowpack is rapidly withering away under the relentless warm weather and rain. On a positive note, much of the air has settled out of the snow and it has consolidated into a cohesive layer that is well bonded to the ground anchors. Although few new avalanches have been observed recently, like an old crocodile, there might still be some bite left in the snowpack. Today you will want to watch out for natural wet sluffs, sneaky little low elevation slide paths and human triggered wet slides. The human triggered slides will be the most common of these and can be mitigated by not traveling directly above your partners and moving in a diagonal fall line that allows the snow to sluff off to the side, instead of on top of you. These will be most likely on slopes steeper than 35 degrees.
Bottom
Line for the
There is generally a LOW avalanche danger today. On slopes steeper than 35 degrees, there is a moderate danger of human triggered wet slides.
Mountain Weather:
We’ll get a taste of the Northwest today with warm, wet, cloudy weather. The winds will kick up from moderate to strong by about 2pm and blow out of the east/southeast. This pattern of mixed instability will continue to linger throughout the weekend as a trough slowly works its way through the Southwest states. Sunday looks the most promising for snow, with the temperatures drop down into the 20’s at 8,000.
For specific digital forecasts for the
General Information:
The
Wasatch Powderbird Guides did not fly yesterday, and on the unlikely chance
that they fly today, they will be in
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.
Thanks for calling.
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