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
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Monday,
January 03, 2005
Good morning, this is Drew
Hardesty with the
Current Conditions:
The mountains picked up
another inch or two in the last 24 hours and it’s still lightly snowing. The winds calmed down overnight and, except
for the
Avalanche Conditions:
There were three more human
triggered slides in the central Wasatch yesterday, all running on weak faceted
snow. Limelight bowl, an east-northeast facing
bowl at 8700’ on the
If yesterday’s polemic
revolved around the complexity of the danger, today’s
will have to do with the extent and trickiness of the danger involved. Two layers of weak faceted grains, one from
November and the other from mid-December should continue to be active in
localized terrain. I think these
problems may be most pronounced in areas that received the most wind and snow
from this last storm that coincidentally had some of the weaker snow across the
range. Areas where this may be most
pronounced will be along the
Bottom Line:
Today, the avalanche danger
is a scary
MODERATE on northwest through easterly facing slopes
approaching 35 degrees and steeper, especially with recent drifts of wind blown
snow, which includes the mid-elevations.
Mountain Weather:
We’ll have mostly cloudy
skies with 1-3” expected during the day.
Winds will be light from the southwest, increasing by late afternoon. 8000’ highs will be in the near 30 with
10,000’ temps near twenty. The storms
for mid-week are looking more favorable for the north, with decent snow falling
from tomorrow through early Thursday with a Low moving right overhead. Optimistic projections are 2’ or more by
Thursday, with another on tap for the weekend.
The Wasatch Powderbird Guides
did not fly yesterday because of weather and if possible, will be in American
Fork, Lamb’s and Snake Creek.
Registration for
the Friends of the
Free Beacon Rescue
Training Centers are now open at Snowbird and the Canyons. For more information go to
wasatchbackcountryrescue.org.
We do an early morning update
around 6am each day on the 364-1591 line.
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.
Brett Kobernik will update this advisory by 7:30 on Tuesday
morning.
Thanks for calling
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For an explanation of
avalanche danger ratings: