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
To receive automated
e-mails of this advisory click HERE.
Monday, January 17, 2005
Good morning, this
Current Conditions:
As of 5am, skies are
cloudy with a few flakes falling in the hills.
Overnight temperatures were in the mid-to-upper twenties, so the
dampened snow surfaces on all aspects to about 9500’ from yesterday should have
frozen nicely. Winds are light out of
the west-northwest. It’ll probably be a
good idea to have another cup of coffee to let the snow surfaces thaw by
mid/late morning.
Avalanche Conditions:
Another skier-triggered
avalanche was reported in the backcountry.
This one was off the north side of
Yesterday’s cloud cover
accentuated the warm temps, dampening all the snow surfaces up to about 9500’,
resulting in some surface sluffing and wet push-alanches
on the steepest slopes. Once the skies
clear, I’d expect this type of activity to continue, and folks should exercise caution
on the steep mid and low elevation slopes with a terrain trap below.
As a last note, despite
that fact that most avalanche professionals are still a bit gun-shy with the
steep open lines, you can still find good safe riding on and below slopes less
steep than 30 degrees. Regardless, as
the tragedy in Dutch Draw illustrates, continue to put only one person on a
slope at a time, get way out of the way at the bottom, make a plan, and carry
rescue gear.
Bottom Line (
The avalanche
danger is a SCARY MODERATE on and below all
northwest through the easterly facing slopes approaching 35 degrees and
steeper. Human triggered avalanches will
continue to be possible. If you’re
caught in one of these, it’s all over. Wet
sluffs may be expected at the mid-to-low elevations by the afternoon.
Mountain Weather:
We should have clearing
skies by midday as a ridge builds in from the west. Winds will be light from the northwest. The warming trend will continue today and
through the week, with today’s 8000’ highs set for near 40 and 10,000’ temps
rising to the mid-twenties.
Yesterday Powderbird
Guides flew in AF and will head back there today.
UDOT HAS A NEW ROAD AND AVALANCHE HOTLINE
FOR THE COTTONWOODS: 975-4838.
Snowbird is
hosting its 2nd annual Backcountry Avalanche Awareness Week January
31 – February 7th as a benefit for the
If you are getting into
the backcountry and see anything we should know about, give us a call at
524-5304, or 1-800-662-4140, or e-mail us at [email protected]
We value your information
very much.
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
For an explanation of
avalanche danger ratings:
http://www.avalanche.org/usdanger.htm