Wasatch Cache National Forest
In
partnership with:
The NEW AND IMPROVED Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center Home page is: http://www.utahavalanchecenter.com
To receive automated
e-mails of this advisory click HERE.
Avalanche advisory
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Good morning, this is Evelyn
Lees with the
Tonight there
will be a free, short video and a panel discussion entitled “Avalanches –
Weather, Mountains, and Risk at the Salt Lake Library, starting at 7:00 pm. The panelists are Larry Dunn, Jim Steenburg,
John Sohl,
And then this Friday,
January 28th, Brett Kobernik will be giving a free avalanche talk at
Milosport in
Current Conditions:
Skies were clear most of
the night, and there was a good refreeze at all elevations for the second night
in a row. This morning, temperatures are
in the low to mid 20’s at 9 to 10,000’ and in the teens in the mountain valleys. Winds are light, less than 10 mph, from the
southwest. The snow surface is a mix of sun
and wind crusts, both supportable and breakable, with a few patches of soft,
recrystalized snow on very shady, sheltered slopes. Today’s mostly cloudy skies and cooler
temperatures will most likely prevent the crusts from softening.
Avalanche Conditions:
No new activity was
reported from the backcountry yesterday, and the 36 hour cooling trend is
helping stabilize the snow on all aspects.
However, never, ever trust a snowpack with hard slabs or buried facets. They always surprise you when you let your
guard down or least expect it. So there
are still isolated slopes where a person could trigger a slide – most likely by
hitting a shallower spot on a steep, northwest through east facing slope, at
mid and upper elevations. Carefully evaluate
any steep slope you travel on and realize the unique signature of slides this
month has been their large size.
Also, stay well back from cornices
and avoid travel beneath the glide cracks that have
formed on a variety of slopes.
For the future, the expected
small amounts of new snow will give us dust on crust, with some sluffing. But the snow may also bury and preserve surface
hoar and near surface facets, especially in drainage bottoms. Also keep an eye on the loose, weakening snow
under some of the crusts.
Bottom Line (
Most slopes
have a LOW avalanche danger. There is still an isolated chance of
triggering a deeper slide, especially on steep slopes with a weak thin
snowpack, facing northwest through east, and on these slopes the avalanche
danger is MODERATE.
Mountain Weather:
A series of weak disturbances
will move over the area through the weekend, with light winds and minimal snowfall
amounts. Skies have already become
mostly cloudy, and there is chance of a few snow showers this afternoon. Highs will be in the upper 30’s at 8,000’ and
only the mid 20’s at 10,000’. The
southwesterly winds will be light, in the 10 to 15 mph range. Snow showers tonight, with 1 to 3” possible
and lows in the mid 20’s. Skies will be
cloudy again on Thursday, with another few inches of snow possible.
Yesterday Powderbird
Guides flew in American Fork and Cascade Ridge.
Weather permitting, they will be in Cascade, Mineral,
Snowbird is
hosting its 2nd annual Backcountry Avalanche Awareness Week January
31 – February 7th as a benefit for the
The new Friends of the 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.
Thanks for calling
For an explanation of
avalanche danger ratings: