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Avalanche advisory
Wednesday, March 02,
2005
Good morning, this is Evelyn Lees with the
Current Conditions:
Skies are mostly clear this morning and temperatures are warming ahead of the
weak disturbance headed our way. Most
mountain stations are in the upper teens to low 20’s. The westerly winds are in the 10 to 15 mph
range, with gusts into the 20’s.
The snowpack continues to sing
the same song, with enjoyable, soft recrystalized snow on shady, wind sheltered
mid and upper elevation slopes and a mix of crusts elsewhere.
Avalanche Conditions:
Yesterday’s backcountry avalanche activity consisted of loose sluffs and
shallow new wind drifts or slabs, triggered on NW through E facing slopes. These sluffs and slides were quite sensitive
and running long distances in steep terrain, but were very shallow and
generally predictable and manageable. However,
if they caught you by surprise in the wrong place, they are just large enough
to take you for a ride. They are failing
on or running in weak, sugary recrystalized surface snow. Today’s winds will continue to move snow around
in the higher terrain, making the wind drifts more widespread and perhaps a bit
deeper.
And if you are traveling on steep,
northerly facing slopes, it may still be possible to trigger a deeper, wider
avalanche into old snow, most likely on a slope with a shallower snowpack.
Bottom Line (
The avalanche danger is generally LOW, and human triggered avalanches are unlikely on
most slopes. There
is a MODERATE danger on mid and upper
elevation northwest through east facing slopes, approaching 40 degrees or
steeper, especially with recent deposits of wind drifted snow. (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.)
A weak disturbance will cross the area late today through Thursday. Clouds will be on the increase, with a chance
of snow showers by late afternoon.
Temperatures will warm into the low 40’s at 8,000’ and the low 20’s at
10,000’. The light southwesterly winds
will increase into the 15 to 20 mph range today. Light snow tonight and Thursday, with 3 to 6”
possible. A ridge of high pressure will
then dominate through at least the middle of next week. Weak short waves may drift through, producing
occasional cloudiness.
Wasatch Powderbird
Guides did not fly yesterday. Today they
will be Mineral,
If you have any snow or
avalanche observations, call and leave a message at 524-5304 or 1-800-662-4140,
or e-mailing us at [email protected]. Fax is 524-6301.
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.
I will update this advisory by
7:30 on Thursday morning.
Thanks for calling.
For an explanation of avalanche danger ratings:
http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/ed-scale.htm