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

Sunday, March 13, 2005
Good morning, this is Drew Hardesty with the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center with your backcountry avalanche and mountain weather advisory.  Today is Sunday, March 13, 2005, and its 7:30 in the morning.

Current Conditions:
A strong cold front swept through overnight, plunging temperatures into the single digits and mid-teens, and those looking for corn may want to look at lower elevations and take a book while waiting for things to soften. The northwest winds slacked off from yesterday’s blustery 30-45mph speeds to a more reasonable 15-20mph and that trend should continue throughout the day. Before heading out today, throw a quick file across those edges and then take a hard look at your dental insurance.

Avalanche Conditions:
The good news is that the cold front effectively locked up the wet snow problems and despite the winds, there just wasn’t much snow to blow around. Today’s problems will be centered around that odd wind drift in upper elevation steep terrain and the potential for a slide for life on the slick snow surfaces.

Bottom Line (Salt Lake, Park City, Ogden and Provo mountains):
The avalanche danger is generally LOW. If things start to get wet and sloppy, it’ll be time to change aspects or head for the car. For an explanation of avalanche danger ratings go to: http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/ed-scale.htm

Mountain Weather: (You can find the afternoon Weather Update here.)
We’ll be under a cold mostly dry north and northwesterly flow for most of the week. Clear skies will become partly cloudy this afternoon ahead of a weak disturbance moving through tonight that may give us as much as an inch or so. Winds will be out of the north at 10-15mph. 8000’ highs will be in the mid-twenties with 10,000’ temperatures in the low teens.

Yesterday, Wasatch Powderbird Guides didn’t get out, but will be in AF, Cascade, and the Sessions today.

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.

UDOT COTTONWOOD CANYONS HOTLINE FOR ROAD CLOSURE AND AVALANCHE CONTROL INFORMATION: 975-4838. We try to update our early morning avalanche activity report by around 5:30 am at 364-1591.

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 Monday morning.

Thanks for calling.