In
partnership with: The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center, Utah Department of
Public Safety Division of Comprehensive Emergency Management,
For photos of avalanches and
avalanche activity, 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
4/2)
For a list of backcountry avalanche
activity, visit: http://www.avalanche.org/%7Euac/Avalanche_List.htm (Updated
3/31)
Avalanche Advisory afternoon update
Thursday, April 22, 2004 6:00 pm
Good afternoon, this is Drew
Hardesty with the
Current Conditions:
There’s nothing like strong
winds to wreak
havoc on the traveling conditions and
add spice to the avalanches. The Wasatch
managed to squeeze another inch or two out of the storm, but today the big
ticket item was the strong north through easterly winds that averaged 20-30
mph, gusting to 45 along the ridgelines.
The snow surface conditions are now a medley of wind pillows, scoured
areas of mostly supportable crust, and my all-time favorite, the trapdoor
breakable crust.
Avalanche Conditions:
In the words of the intrepid
Bob Athey, it was easy to tease the cat today as the new wind drifts were sensitive
to slope cuts and cornice drops. The strong
north through east winds predominantly loaded south through west facing slopes,
but plenty of cross-loading occurred as well. Activity reported from the resorts and the
backcountry were consistent in describing the slides as “active, but pockety”,
with most in the 12-18” range and generally less than 100’ wide. Winds like these commonly load uncommon areas
as well as further down the slope than what one might expect. Fortunately, the drifting from the past couple
days had mostly settled out and activity was within the newly drifted snow and
not stepping down. While many of today’s
drifts will have settled out for Friday, the continued strong winds should keep
a few pockets active in the mid and upper elevations. Watch for and avoid rounded pillows of snow,
tune in to cracking and hollow-sounding snow-whales, and exercise caution on
slope cuts and cornice drops. If the warmer
ambient temps are accompanied by direct solar heating, the danger will rise
accordingly. Watch if the snow starts to
become saturated and you’ll see a spike in natural wet activity combined with
an increase in sensitivity when moving through the steeper slopes.
Remember, all the ski areas
expect for Snowbird are closed and no one is doing avalanche control work - so
you’ll need to treat your favorite resort runs, like Easier Way, as the backcountry.
BOTTOM LINE
FOR THE
Mountain Weather:
The center of the Low is currently over the four corners area and should continue to pump limited moisture into the Wasatch tonight with sustained strong easterly winds. The winds tonight through tomorrow midday will be 30-35 mph, but should slowly taper off somewhat by the afternoon. 8000’ lows will be near 20 degrees tonight, rising to the mid-40’s tomorrow. Ridgetop temps will be in the low 20’s tonight and tomorrow. High pressure will start to build by late Friday accompanied by a warming trend that should push 10,000’ temps to the mid-40’s by Monday afternoon. The longer range models suggest another storm this time next week.
Backcountry
snow and avalanche information is still useful to us. So if you’re still getting out and see
anything of interest, leave us a message at 524-5304, 1 800-662-4140, drop us
an email at [email protected], or a fax
to 524-6301. The information in this
advisory is from the US Forest Service, which is solely responsible for its
content. This advisory describes general
avalanche conditions and local variations always occur.
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