Wasatch 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 NEW Utah Avalanche Center Home page is: http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/

 

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Avalanche advisory

Friday, January 21, 2005

 

Good morning, this is Brett Kobernik with the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center with your backcountry avalanche and mountain weather advisory.  Today is Friday, January 21, 2005, and it’s 7:30 in the morning.

 

I will be giving a free “Know Before You Go” avalanche awareness talk at the Park City Milosport tonight, January 21st, at 7 pm.

 

Current Conditions:

Yesterday certainly was a warm one.  I measured a temperature of 41 degrees on the shady north aspect of Mt. Superior near 11,000 feet.  Melt freeze crusts formed up to 9,500 feet on north aspects over the past few days.  Currently, up above the valley fog the skies are partly cloudy with ridgetop temperatures near 30 which are 5 to 10 degrees cooler then yesterday.  Ridgetop winds are around 10 mph from the west.

 

Avalanche Conditions:

Even with the warm temperatures from Thursday, most observers reported very little wet avalanche activity and no reports of any deep slab avalanches.  (Photo of explosive triggered avalanche on Red Baldy from Wednesday)  With slightly cooler temperatures today I would expect even less wet activity but you should still watch for wet mushy snow if you intend on using lower elevation terrain.  Deep slab releases are still in the back of my mind and you would most likely trigger one of these in steep upper elevation shallow rocky north aspects where the snowpack weakness is more pronounced.

 

Bottom Line (Salt Lake, Park City, Ogden and Provo mountains):

The avalanche danger is MODERATE on northwest through east facing slopes of about 35 degrees and steeper.  Human triggered avalanches are possible.  Continue to watch for wet activity as well over the next few days.

 

Mountain Weather:

Today we’ll have just enough moisture moving in from the north to produce some high clouds.  Ridgetop temperatures should remain in the low to mid 30’s and winds will be from a northerly direction at 5 to 10 mph picking up just slightly during the day.  We’ll see the same pattern for Saturday with just slightly fewer high clouds.

 

I know I welcomed a break from the storms and avalanches a few days ago but now I’m rested and ready for some more.  Unfortunately the ridge of high pressure will remain over the area for a few more days.  Computer models show a change by the middle of next week but just what kind of change is unclear.

 

Yesterday Powderbird Guides flew in Porter Fork and the Session Mountains.  Today they will have 5 groups in the Sessions and 2 groups in Mineral, Cardiff, Days, Silver, Grizzly, White Pine, Porter Fork and Alexander Basin.

 

UDOT HAS A NEW ROAD AND AVALANCHE HOTLINE FOR THE COTTONWOODS: 975-4838.

 

The new UAC web page is up and operational.  Check it out at www.avalanche.org then click on Salt Lake City.  Thanks for all the feedback – we’ll try to correct the bugs as fast as you point them out.  You may need to hit refresh in your browser if it does not open up.

 

Snowbird is hosting its 2nd annual Backcountry Avalanche Awareness Week January 31 – February 7th as a benefit for the Utah Avalanche Center.  On Friday, February 4th, there will be a fundraising dinner at Snowbird with presentations by Utah Governor, Jon Huntsman and also Dave Breashears and Apa Sherpa and Lhapka Rita.  On February 5th and 6th, there will be a variety of classes offered at Snowbird.  For more information, go to www.backcountryawareness.com.

 

We appreciate hearing from you especially if you have information about recent avalanche activity so don’t hesitate to call and leave a message at 524-5304, or 1-800-662-4140, or e-mail us at [email protected]

 

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.

 

Bruce Tremper will update this advisory by 7:30 on Saturday morning.

 

Thanks for calling

  

 

For an explanation of avalanche danger ratings:

http://www.avalanche.org/usdanger.htm