Wasatch Cache National Forest

In partnership with: The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center, Utah Department of Public Safety Division of Comprehensive Emergency Management,

Salt Lake County, and Utah State Parks:

        

 

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Avalanche ADVISORY

Monday, November 29, 2004 7:30 Am         

 

Good morning, this is Bruce Tremper with the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center with your backcountry avalanche and mountain weather information.  Today is Monday, November 28th, 2004, and it’s 7:30 am. 

 

There are two upcoming benefits for our partners The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center.  On Tuesday, November 30th, Howie Garber will be giving an adventure sports and nature photography slide show at 7pm at the Ft. Douglas Post Theater on the U of U Campus.  There is a $10 donation requested.  Then on Thursday December 2nd, Brewvies will have their 4th annual Ski Bum Movie Night with two showings of TGR’s latest film “Soul Purpose” plus the film “Sinners”, first at 7pm and then at 9pm. 

 

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 Utah including the Uinta Mountains.  I have a more detailed list of avalanche activity on our other phone recording at 364-1591 and I will update our list of avalanches on the web later this morning.  Finally, there’s PHOTOS on the web as well.

 

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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