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, December 13,
2004 7:30 Am
Good
morning, this is Drew Hardesty with the
We will be giving an avalanche awareness talk at the Salt Lake
REI Tuesday night at 7pm.
Current Conditions:
Hope
you washed your Hawaiian shirt from yesterday, because you’ll need it again for
today. Temperatures remained above
freezing at all but the highest elevations again overnight for the third night
in a row. Winds noticeably shifted to
the southeast overnight and are averaging 15-25mph across the highest
ridgelines, but those should diminish in the next couple hours. As far as snow surface conditions go, you can
find a December version of spring skiing on the steep sunny aspects with a smorgasbord
of character enhancing conditions on the off and shady slopes.
Avalanche Conditions:
Fortunately,
we had a break from any incidents in the backcountry yesterday and we had teams
investigating the accidents in Mineral
Fork, above Strawberry Reservoir, and up near Bountiful
Peak. Reports and photos on these
should be posted later today. But in
brief, Bruce reported the slide in Mineral Fork to be 2-4’ deep and 600’ wide,
running almost 1500’ while Craig remarked that the slide above Strawberry was
one of the largest human triggered avalanches he’d ever seen. Doug’s photos at
Clearly,
warm temps have helped the snowpack gain strength the last couple of days, but
it’s too much of a good thing. Direct
solar heating, daytime highs in the 40’s and above freezing temperatures have
stoked the wet slab activity on the sunny aspects. Natural wet slabs were reported along the Timpanogas and Cascade Ridge massifs above
The
Powderbirds, protecting the search and rescue effort
for yesterday, threw a number of explosives in upper Mineral Fork with mixed
results. Some
were quite large and pulling out hard slabs into old snow, as expected. At the same time, there were no reported ‘dry’
human triggered slides from yesterday, and the ski areas reported little
activity with continued explosive testing.
On the whole, the snowpack is slowly starting to heal with the problem
areas confined to more localized areas. But
it’s like being in
Bottom Line (
Mountain Weather:
It’ll
be mostly sunny with 10,000’ temps in the mid-thirties with 8000’ highs in the low
to mid 40’s. Winds will be 10-20 mph
from the southeast. Looks like a weak
storm Tuesday night into Wednesday with a ridge building in for later in the
week.
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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