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/
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Avalanche advisory
Friday,
January 07, 2005
Good morning, this is Brett
Kobernik with the
UDOT will be doing
avalanche control work begining at 7:30 this morning
in
UDOT will also be
doing control work in
Current Conditions:
We have a slight break from
precipitation this morning with mostly clear skies. Mountain temperatures are in the low single
digits and winds are westerly at 5 to 10 mph with a few higher gusts overnight. The mountains received one to three feet with
of snow depending on location since Tuesday night. Some favored locations received close to 4
feet.
Avalanche Conditions:
The big news is
the rapidly-rising avalanche danger for this afternoon and through the
weekend. It’s a triple whammy with snow,
extremely strong winds and rising temperatures.
This will almost certainly create widespread danger of both human
triggered and natural avalanches on any slope with recent wind drifts and
possibly non-wind drifted slopes as well.
It should begin this afternoon when the winds begin to blow hard. There’s deep piles of feather-like snow
everywhere and the wind will easily have it’s way with
it, blowing it into deep, dense wind drifts on most slopes. Also, snow and rising temperatures through
the weekend will make the snow slabby and upside down even in non wind drifted
areas. This is definitely not the
weekend to be on, or underneath, steep slopes in the backcountry.
Yesterday, the
new light density snow avalanched naturally in the form of loose snow sluffs on
the steeper slopes. A number of backcountry skiers reported human
triggered avalanches from Thursday as well. Some of these human triggered
slides were loose snow avalanches depositing large debris piles. Skiers
triggered a couple of soft slab avalanches as well with the largest being in
the east bowl of Silver Fork. It fractured about 12” deep, 100 feet wide
and ran at least 600 feet vertical producing a decent sized dust cloud. So today, even before the winds pick
up, you can still find some sensitive wind slabs and potentially dangerous
sluffs.
Bottom Line:
The current avalanche danger
is CONSIDERABLE on any slope approaching 35
degrees in steepness. The danger will rise
to HIGH today with the
onset of strong winds. People must stay
of off and out from underneath any steep slopes. We will most likely issue an avalanche
warning this afternoon.
Mountain Weather:
Today temperatures along the
ridgelines will be in the upper teens with light west winds this morning. Winds will shift to the south west around
noon and pick up to 20 mph. Stronger
winds will start affecting the area around 2 pm with speeds of 40 mph and
gusting to possibly 80.
Tonight a warm front will arrive bringing snow.
4-8” should fall by Saturday morning.
Strong south west winds will continue.
Temperatures should remain in the teens.
Periods of snow with
continued wind is expected over the next few days.
We value any information
people are willing to give us. We don’t
bite or pass judgment so if you trigger an avalanche or have any information on
snowpack and avalanches please call us at 524-5304 or 1-800-662-4140, or fax to
801-524-6301, or email to [email protected]
The Wasatch Powderbird Guides
did not fly yesterday and if possible, will be in
There are a few
spots left in the Friends of the
Snowbird is hosting
its 2nd annual Backcountry Avalanche Awareness Week January 31 –
February 7th as a benefit for the
We do an early morning update
around 6am each day on the 364-1591 line.
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
________________________________________________________________________
For an explanation of
avalanche danger ratings: