Wasatch Cache National Forest
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Avalanche advisory
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
Good morning, this is Brett
Kobernik with the
Current Conditions:
As of 5 am ridge top
temperatures are 5 to 10 degrees cooler then yesterday at this time with most
locations in the upper 20’s. Skies are
clear and winds are light from the west.
Avalanche Conditions:
Observers reported good
corn conditions over the last few days but you need to get it early as a group
of backcountry skiers almost learned the hard way yesterday. They remotely triggered a slab avalanche on
the southeast aspect of Gobblers Knob shortly after noon. The slide then sympathetically released two
smaller slab avalanches on each side of it.
The largest slide was 600 feet wide, ran 800 feet vertical, and averaged
18” deep. Faceted snow was the reported
weak layer and the warm temperatures contributed significantly to the avalanche
as well. The group noted that the snow surface
before the avalanche was wet but still supportable with skis penetrating only about
3 inches deep which wouldn’t cause a lot of concern in most cases. With facets as the weak layer, this isn’t the
typical melt-freeze corn snow avalanche cycle.
Although temperatures were cooler last night the cold probably didn’t
penetrate the snowpack very deep and people may still be able to trigger this
type of avalanche again later today as temperatures warm.
Many observers noticed
signs of the warm temperatures putting stress onto the northerly facing snowpack
as well. These included cornices pulling
away from the ridges forming cracks and many glide cracks are visible as well,
some in areas where they usually don’t form.
Bottom Line (
Most areas
have a LOW danger this morning. The danger will rise to MODERATE on
all aspects as the temperatures warm during the day. East and southeast facing slopes will soften
first followed by south then southwest and west. Stay out from under glide cracks on northwest
through northeast facing slopes as well.
Glide avalanches wouldn’t surprise me especially in areas like Stairs
Gulch, Broads Fork, or Mill B.
Mountain Weather:
Today is the last day of
high pressure. Above the valley fog
skies will be mostly clear with high clouds moving in by around noon. 8,000 foot temperatures will be around 40 degrees
with ridge top temperatures around freezing.
Winds will be light from the southwest.
A series of weak storms
will affect the area over the next few days with cooler temperatures but unfortunately
little chance of snow.
Yesterday the Powderbird
Guides flew in American Fork and the Cascade Ridge. Today they will be in American Fork, Cascade
and White Pine.
Brett Kobernik
will be giving a free avalanche talk at Milosport in
There will be a
free, short video and a panel discussion entitled “Avalanche – Weather,
Mountains, and Risk. It will be at the
Salt Lake Library at 7:00 pm on Wednesday, January 26th.
Snowbird is
hosting its 2nd annual Backcountry Avalanche Awareness Week January
31 – February 7th as a benefit for the
The new UAC web page is up
and operational. Check it out at
www.avalanche.org then click on
If you see anything we
ought to know about please call and leave a message at 524-5304, or
1-800-662-4140, or e-mail us at [email protected],
remember we can’t be everywhere at once, so we depend on people just like
you.
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.
Evelyn Lees will update this advisory by 7:30 on Wednesday
morning.
Thanks for calling
For an explanation of
avalanche danger ratings: