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Avalanche advisory
Tuesday, February 22,
2005
Good morning, this is Brett Kobernik with the
Current Conditions:
Yesterday was a great day up in the mountains with excellent riding conditions
and very pleasant weather. With the
warm temperatures, all but the more direct north facing aspects became wet and
melt freeze crusts formed on them. Currently under partly cloudy skies,
ridgetop temperatures are in the low 20’s and winds are light from the east.
Avalanche Conditions:
The new snow from over the weekend
settled quite a bit on Monday and was not as sensitive as on Sunday when a widespread
natural avalanche cycle occurred.
However, I received numerous reports of human triggered avalanches and a
few natural avalanches as well from Monday.
Also, some of the ski areas reported a good bit of activity from
avalanche control work on Monday.
In backcountry terrain near
Snowbasin, a skier triggered a slide and was caught and partially buried. He was uninjured and was able to dig himself
out. A snowboarder in backcountry
terrain near
I also received numerous other
reports of people triggering small soft slab avalanches throughout the Wasatch
ranging from 6 to 12” deep and 30-75 feet wide.
All of the avalanches from yesterday involved the new snow from over the
weekend with the exception of an observation of some deeper slides in the White
Pine and Hogum Fork area which could have broken into
old snow but this is unconfirmed. Pay
attention to collapsing as this is an indicator of deeper instability.
We don’t have completely
stable or what I call “anything goes” type conditions right now. You may still be able to trigger a soft slab
avalanche within the newest snow and I would not rule out avalanches breaking
into older snow just yet. With cooler
temperatures and clouds in store for today, wet activity will not be as great
of a concern as it was yesterday.
Bottom Line (
The avalanche danger is MODERATE on slopes
steeper then 35 degrees in wind effected areas.
This danger could contain avalanches breaking into old snow making them
much more dangerous. Continue to follow
safe backcountry protocol. Expect the
chance of an avalanche on steeper slopes and have an escape route planned.
(http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/ed-scale.htm for an explanation of avalanche danger ratings.)
Mountain Weather: (You
can find the afternoon Weather Update here.)
We have some
moisture moving into the area today. A
few inches of snow should fall mainly in the afternoon. Temperatures at 8000’ will be in the low 30’s
and 10,000’ temperatures in the low 20’s.
Ridgetop winds will be less then 10 mph from the southeast.
There
will be enough moisture over the area on Wednesday to produce scattered snow
showers during the day and into the evening.
Partly cloudy skies are forecasted through the weekend.
Yesterday,
the Wasatch Powderbird Guides flew in Lambs canyon. Today, they will be in Mineral,
If you have any observations
you would like to share with us, call and leave a message at 524-5304 or
1-800-662-4140, or e-mailing us at [email protected]. Fax is 524-6301. Your observations are very helpful in
compiling the daily avalanche advisory.
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:
http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/ed-scale.htm