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Avalanche advisory
Saturday, March 26,
2005
Good morning, this is Brett Kobernik with the
Weekend Warrior Update:
I’ve
issued a special avalanche statement for all of the mountains in
Current Conditions:
Alta picked up another 5 inches of snow overnight. This is in addition to the 10 inches that
fell during the day on Friday. The
Avalanche Conditions:
Friday was another active day in the mountains with both natural and human
triggered avalanches coming down. At
least two separate parties were caught and carried in slides on Friday.
One party traveling up near Mt
Olympus on snowshoes was caught, carried, partially buried, and were able to
dig themselves out and return home. I
don’t have any more details on this incident.
In Big Cottonwood, another
party of three skiers was caught and drug through the trees in an avalanche
with a fracture line reported to be up to 7 feet deep in places. They were badly beaten up and sustained some
injuries but luckily were not buried. A
rescue effort was needed to evacuate them.
Yet another group in Georges
Bowl, also in Big Cottonwood, triggered a slab avalanche 12” deep, 100’
wide on a slope of about 38 degree that ran 600 to 700 feet vertical
distance. No one was caught.
For today, slab avalanches
will continue to be a threat. Winds from
last night were just enough to help drift snow into dangerous slabs.
What I am really nervous about
is a state wide warming trend that will start today. The large amount of new
will be very susceptible to avalanching as the daytime heating and direct sun
affects the snow. Slab avalanching is
almost certain today especially on any steep slopes facing the sun. Even northerly facing slopes especially at
lower elevations could become active later today as well.
Don’t let the lure of fresh
powder and fun override your avalanche hazard decision making. No one wants Easter weekend to always remind
them that a loved one was killed in an avalanche.
Bottom Line (
The
avalanche danger remains CONSIDERABLE on slopes approaching 35 degrees
or steeper, especially with recent deposits of wind drifted snow. This means natural avalanches are possible
and human triggered avalanches are probable.
The danger may rise to HIGH as daytime heating occurs with clear skies and direct sun
in the forecast. HIGH means natural and
human triggered avalanches are likely.
These avalanches, especially on southeast through southwest facing
slopes have the potential to be very large and lethal. Once they get moving they could travel quite
far onto lower angle slopes, much lower then where they started. People without good avalanche skills should
stay out of the backcountry this weekend.
Remember that if you leave the ski areas through backcountry gates you
will be in dangerous terrain and at much greater risk of getting caught and
killed by an avalanche.
Danger Scale: http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/ed-scale.htm
Mountain Weather: (You can find the afternoon
Weather Update here.)
Temperatures will start out cold this morning and should get up to the upper
20s at 10,000 feet and the mid 30s at 8000 feet. Skies will be mostly clear. Winds will be from the north in the 10 mph range.
For
Sunday, temperatures will continue to warm, winds will pick up, and we’ll see
partly cloudy skies in the afternoon.
Another
couple of storms will affect the area early next week. These look cold and could again produce a
good shot of snow.
The
Powderbird guides did not get out yesterday.
Today they will be in Mineral,
LITTLE
If you are getting out, we
appreciate your snowpack and avalanche observations. Please call and leave a message at 524-5304
or 1-800-662-4140, or e-mail 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 our early
morning avalanche activity report by around 5:30 am on Saturday morning at
364-1591, and this advisory by 7:30.
Thanks for calling.