Wasatch Cache National Forest
In partnership with: Utah State Parks and Recreation, The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center, Utah Department of Emergency Services and Homeland Security and Salt Lake County.

 

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Avalanche advisory

Saturday, February 12, 2005
Good morning, this is Evelyn Lees with the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center with your backcountry avalanche and mountain weather advisory.  Today is Saturday, February 12th 2005, and its 7:30 in the morning.

Our partner The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center is hosting another event.  Tickets are now on sale for the annual Banff Film Festival, February 16 & 17, at Kingsbury Hall, and all proceeds benefit the Utah Avalanche Center.  For more information call 801/581-8516 or go to www.banffmountainfestivals.ca. 

Current Conditions:
A warm, moist air mass has brought dense snow to the northern mountains.  As of 5 am, 6” has fallen in the Provo area mountains, with 1 to 3” in the Ogden, Park City and Cottonwoods, and densities are about 10 to 15%.  The southerly winds picked up yesterday afternoon, and averaged 20 to 30 mph with strong gusts in the 40’s and 50’s much of the night.  The winds have finally decreased this morning, and are now averaging 15 to 20 mph.  Temperatures are generally in the mid 20’s to low 30’s. 

Avalanche Conditions:
Avalanche conditions will be tricky in the backcountry today.  The combination of wind, dense new snow, warming temperatures and buried weak layers are creating a rising avalanche danger. 

Yesterday, the winds rapidly created soft and hard new wind drifts, with a few skier triggered and one natural slide reported.  These were 8 to 15” deep, and averaged about 100’ wide.  Today, sensitive new wind drifts will be much more widespread and deeper, at both the mid and upper elevations.  While many will fail on yesterday’s weak surface snow, there is also a more deeply buried layer of facets and surface hoar from January’s dry spell.  This weak, sugary and feathery layer seems fairly widespread in the Cottonwoods, Park City, Uintas and Provo area mountains, and was the weak layer in last Wednesday’s slides.  Today, the weight of the new snow, wind drifts or a shallow slide could make this buried weak layer active again, creating deeper and wider slides.  It may be possible to triggered slides remotely from a distance.  Cracking or collapsing will be signs that you are in an area of unstable snow.  If you are looking for less dangerous terrain, head to wind sheltered slopes, less steep than 35 degrees.
And finally, low elevation, shady slopes also have weak layers, especially in the Ogden and Provo area mountains.  So avoid steep slopes above terrain traps where even a small sluff could pile up deeply.

Bottom Line (Salt Lake, Park City, and Ogden mountains):
The avalanche danger is MODERATE on slopes steeper than about 35 degrees, and human triggered avalanches are possible. The danger is CONSIDERABLE on mid and upper elevation slopes steeper than about 35 degrees with recent deposits of wind-drifted snow.  On these slopes, natural avalanches are possible and human triggered avalanches are likely. If you are looking for generally LOW avalanche danger, go to wind sheltered, mid and low elevation terrain, and stay on slopes less steep than about 35.

Provo mountains:
The avalanche danger is CONSIDERABLE on all slopes steeper than 35 degrees.  If the mountains receive the high end of the forecast snow amounts (7 to 9”), the danger may rise to HIGH.
 

Mountain Weather:
A low centered over Southern California will continue to send moisture northward across Utah.  Skies will be cloudy today, with an additional 3 to 6” of dense snow possible.  Temperatures will be in the low 30’s at 8,000’ and in the low 20’s at 10,000’.  The southwesterly winds will be in the 20 to 25 mph range, shifting to the west later today.  Mostly cloudy skies tonight, with snow decreasing after midnight.  Winds will be moderate from the northwest, and temperatures cool to near 20.  A break Sunday, with snow showers increasing again Sunday night and Monday.

Yesterday, Wasatch Powderbird guides were in White Pine with an alpine tour, and will probably not fly today. 

We really appreciate any information you are willing to give us.  You don’t have to be an avalanche expert to give us some observations so please call and leave a message on our answering machine at 524-5304 or 1-800-662-4140, or e-mail us at [email protected].

Bruce Tremper will give a talk called the Science of Avalanches at REI on Tuesday, February 15th at 7:00 pm.

The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center also has some openings left in their February 3-day avalanche class, the 19-21st.  Registration is at Black Diamond retail.

UDOT COTTONWOOD CANYONS HOTLINE FOR ROAD CLOSURE INFORMATION: 975-4838

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.

Drew Hardesty will update this advisory by 7:30 on Sunday morning.

Thanks for calling

For an explanation of avalanche danger ratings:

http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/ed-scale.htm