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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e-mails of this advisory click HERE.
Sunday, January 09, 2005
Good
morning, this is Drew Hardesty with the
An AVALANCHE WARNING
REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR THE MOUNTAINS OF
Current Conditions:
Overnight
the central Wasatch picked up another 6-8” of mostly graupel with densities
around 20%. The cold front stalled to
the north so since just before midnight, the
Avalanche Conditions:
Unfortunately,
there were two more fatalities yesterday in separate incidents on the Wasatch
Plateau/Manti Skyline area. Preliminary
information can be found here.
Check back on the same link for a full
investigation by the Manti/La Sal avalanche office.
In the
central Wasatch, the ski areas reported stiff, stubborn wind slabs on a variety
of aspects and elevations with most 1-3’ in depth. Not surprisingly, backcountry reports were few
and far between, but we were able to trigger a large slide along the Hidden
Canyon/10,420’ ridgeline in upper BCC that was up to 1000’ wide, stepping down 5½’
deep to the November facets. It was a
heavily loaded north-facing slope at 9600’.
You should be able to find some good firewood from the downed trees up
there in the summer. A couple other 1’ x
50’ naturals were observed along the southern most end of the
Continued
snow and wind will keep the backcountry dangerous on and below steep slopes at
the mid and upper elevations. The new
hard slabs may not rip out until you’re half way down the slope or until the 4th
person crosses the slope. As evidenced
from yesterday, the continued onslaught of wind and snow will allow any
avalanche to potentially step down into the old dormant weak layers from
November and December.
Bottom Line:
The
current avalanche danger is CONSIDERABLE today
on, or beneath, any steep slope with recent deposits of wind drifted snow. Human triggered slides will be probable and
will have the potential to be large and extremely dangerous.
Mountain Weather:
Snowfall
should continue throughout the day with 6-8” of snow expected. Winds should continue to nuke from the
southwest along the ridgelines to the tune of 30-40 mph. 8000’ highs will be near 30 with 10,000’
temps in the low twenties.
If you’re
getting out and see anything we should know about, remember we can’t be
everywhere at once. We depend on people
just like you. Please leave a message on
our answer machine at: 524-5304 or
1-800-662-4140, or fax to 801-524-6301, or email to [email protected]
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.
I will update this
advisory by 7:30 on Monday morning.
Thanks for calling
________________________________________________________________________
For an explanation
of avalanche danger ratings: