In partnership with: The Friends of the
Utah Avalanche Center, Utah Department of Public Safety Division of
Comprehensive Emergency Management,
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Avalanche INFORMATION
Friday, October 29,
2004 8:00 pm
Good
evening, this is Drew Hardesty with the
Current Conditions:
High
expectations for continued snowfall fizzled with the mountains only picking up
a couple of inches today. Winds were blowing
near 20mph out of the west until about noon when they abruptly dropped off to
less than 10mph. Today’s temperatures
dropped into the upper teens and low twenties as my beard froze for the first
time of the season. Turning and riding
and conditions are excellent at the upper elevations with a base near 5’. The mid-elevations and sunny aspects are good
as well with 4-8” over a mostly supportable crust.
Avalanche Conditions
Today,
the avalanche problems were isolated to some new 4-8” soft slabs on the lee of
the upper ridgelines. Cornices are
beginning to become large with some sensitive and breaking back farther than
expected. The good news is that this
isolated danger is quite manageable with slope-cutting and cornice dropping and
by watching your slope angles. Much of
the activity from yesterday was not as widespread today, with the trend
continuing into tomorrow. For Saturday,
little expected snowfall and light winds should do little to increase the avalanche
potential, so the danger will be isolated to the rogue windslab at the highest
elevations.
Remember,
for the most part, the unopened ski areas are not doing control work, and are
just as dangerous as the backcountry.
Alta Ski Area will be open to uphill traffic on Saturday but may close
for uphill traffic again depending on the next storm.
Bottom Line:
The
avalanche danger is LOW in most areas. Steep upper elevation slopes with recent
deposits of wind-drifted snow still have a MODERATE danger. Places like the south slope of the
Mountain Weather:
A
weak storm passing to the north of us should offer the central Wasatch another
inch or two tonight and tomorrow with continued northwesterly winds in the
10-15mph range. The Logan and Idaho
border areas should fare substantially better out of this shortwave,
accumulating as much as 6-10” in the next 24 hours. Tomorrow’s highs at 8000’ will be in the mid-thirties
with ridgetop temps in the low twenties.
Northwesterly winds should be 15mph until picking up Saturday night
ahead of the next storm, slated to affect the central Wasatch Saturday night
through early Monday morning. At this
stage, it looks like areas favored by a northwest flow may pick up as much as a
foot and a half. Sunday’s cold front
should bring us the coldest temps yet, as 10,000’ temps plummet to 12 degrees
F.
If
you are getting out, drop us a line or an email with any reports or
observations from the backcountry. You can
leave us a message at 524-5304 or 1 800-662-4140. Email us 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.
I’ll
update this bulletin by Saturday afternoon.
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