Wasatc h
Cache National
Forest
In partnership with: The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Forecast Center, Utah Department of Public Safety Division of Comprehensive Emergency Management, Salt Lake County, and Utah State Parks
The Utah Avalanche
Center Home page is: http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/
Avalanche advisory
Tuesday, December 14, 2004
Good Morning. This is Evelyn Lees with the
UDOT will be
sighting in the gun in
Wasatch Backcountry
Rescue will be having a fundraiser Saturday night in
Current Conditions:
Skies are clear this morning
and temperatures are in the upper 20s to low 30s. Winds are from the west, generally less than
15 mph. Snow surface conditions are
about as rugged as it gets at the lower to mid elevations and on sunny slopes,
with a nasty mix of supportable and breakable crusts. Upper elevation, shady slopes are supportable
with a thin layer of recrystalized powder.
Avalanche Conditions:
There was one human triggered
slide reported from the backcountry yesterday.
On east facing Pink Pine at about 8,800, a skier triggered a 1 ½ deep,
50 wide slide that ran 400.
The snow pack is slowly
strengthening, and slides are much harder to trigger. However, if you do trigger a slide, it will
most likely 1 ½ to 2 feet deep and over 100 wide, dimensions definitely large
enough to bury or injure you. The
weakest snow is on the shady slopes and in thin snowpack areas. Basically, these weak faceted layers are slow
to strengthen, and the bottom line is patience.
Give it another day or two - continue to stay off of steep slopes that
havent slid.
The winds are forecast to
increase today, and will start to move and drift the snow, especially along the
upper elevation ridgelines. These fresh
drifts will be sensitive to the weight of a person, so avoid any steep slope
with recent wind drifts.
Bottom Line (SLC, Park City, Ogden and Provo Area
Mountains):
The avalanche danger is CONSIDERABLE
on slopes steeper than about 35 degrees, facing northwest thorough east or
having fresh drifts of wind blown snow.
Other steep slopes have a MODERATE danger.
Daytime heating may produce a few more wet sluffs, so if the snow gets
damp and sloppy, get off of and out from under those slopes.
Mountain Weather:
The ridge of high pressure
over northern
To report backcountry snow
and avalanche conditions, especially if you observe or trigger an avalanche,
call (801) 524-5304 or 1-800-662-4140, or email to [email protected] or fax to
801-524-6301. The information in this
advisory is from the U.S. Forest Service, which is solely responsible for its
content. This advisory describes general
avalanche conditions and local variations always occur.
Thanks for calling!
________________________________________________________________________
National
Weather Service - Salt Lake City - Snow.
For an explanation of
avalanche danger ratings: