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 ADVISORY
Monday, November 29,
2004 7:30 Am
Good
morning, this is
There are two upcoming
benefits for our partners The Friends of the
Current Conditions:
Yesterday
was one of those epic days—very deep, very light and very cold. Unfortunately, some stiff winds came up from
the northeast in the afternoon and quickly created soft wind slabs mostly on south
through west facing slopes along the ridges.
Highest gusts were around 50 mph.
It’s down coat and face mask weather again this morning with ridge top
temperatures between zero and minus 8 with 20 mph ridge top winds from the
northeast.
Avalanche Conditions:
As
forecast, it was a very active day yesterday with six human triggered
avalanches in the backcountry that we know of.
Many of them were remote triggers, one person was caught and people
noticed a number of natural avalanches in the backcountry. Avalanche control at resorts in unskied terrain produced fairly widespread, spooky activity
with several reports of remote triggers from 1000 feet away and explosives
taking out ski cuts or visa versa. These
conditions seem to be common throughout northern
Today,
you will find two kinds of avalanche problems.
First, the clear weather in the first two thirds of November created a
thick layer of very weak faceted snow and surface hoar, which we call “persistent”
weak layers because they notoriously continue to produce avalanches several
days after they are buried. Last week’s
dense snow and wind put a hard slab on top of the weak layers, then these past
two days laid down 30-47 inches of extremely light “sucker snow” on top. This has overloaded the buried weak layers,
which are still cranky under their new load.
Today you should continue to stay off of terrain steeper than about 35
degrees, especially north through east facing slopes.
Second,
yesterday afternoon, stiff winds from the northeast instantly created a howling
blizzard along the ridge tops and drifted the snow onto downwind terrain,
making soft, sensitive wind slabs.
Today, as always, you should avoid steep slopes with recent wind drifts.
Bottom Line: There
is still a CONSIDERABLE
danger on any slope steeper than about 35 degrees, especially north through
east facing slopes. This means that human
triggered avalanches are likely. Second,
there is a CONSIDERABLE
danger on any slope steeper than 35 degrees with recent deposits of wind
drifted snow.
Mountain Weather:
Today
should be a great day to get out for some avalanche spotting with clear skies,
deep, light snow and cold temperatures.
Ridge top winds will be 10-20 from the northeast, turning northwest by
tonight. Ridge top temperatures should
barely climb above zero today and 8,000’ temperatures should be around 20
degrees with overnight lows around zero again.
Tuesday night, we should have some clouds and light snow showers as a
weaker cold front pushes through. Then,
we will have much warmer temperatures by Friday with another storm on the
weekend.
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 send 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.
Evelyn
Lees will update this advisory by 7:30 Tuesday morning, and thanks for calling.
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