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Avalanche advisory
Sunday, March 27, 2005
Good morning, this is Brett Kobernik with the
Current Conditions:
Under partly cloudy skies, temperatures are about 10 degrees warmer then
yesterday but still on the cool side with mountain locations between 15 and 25
degrees. Ridge top winds are around 10
mph from the west and I’ve noticed that some gusts into the 25 mph range are
showing up now.
Avalanche Conditions:
Although I did receive many reports of conditions becoming more stable on Saturday
there was a good amount of avalanche activity as well. UDOT control work for the highways produced
two significant slides, one in Stairs Gulch and one on Mt Superior. Both of these were very large and took out
all of the snow from the last weeks storm. A skier in the backcountry near Snowbasin
triggered a soft slab that was 12 inches deep, 50 feet wide and ran about 200
feet vertical. They were not
caught. Another skier in Snake creek got
surprised when he ski cut and popped out a small slide 3 feet deep, 75 feet
wide but it only ran about 30 feet vertical.
Luckily he was not in more exposed terrain. There was also significant natural activity
in the
Today you will still need to
pay attention out there. You may still
be able to find some instability within our most recent snow event. These instabilities will be on higher
northerly facing aspects that have seen wind loading toward the end of our last
storm.
The bigger problem for today will
be wet activity. Temperatures will reach
around freezing at 10,000’ by late afternoon and the sun is supposed to peek
through enough to help soften things up.
There is a lot of snow that has fallen over the last week and it will
still be sensitive to any warming today. The spring time rule of thumb is get
in and out of the mountains early.
Bottom Line (
The
avalanche danger this morning is MODERATE.
You may still find a pocket or two that could pull out on slopes
approaching 40 degrees with recent wind loading. Depending on temperatures and the amount the
sun shines on the snow, the danger will probably rise to CONSIDERABLE as things warm during the
day. As always in the spring, it is best
to leave the mountains early before things get wet and soggy.
Danger Scale: http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/ed-scale.htm
Mountain Weather: (You can find the afternoon
Weather Update here.)
Today we will see partly cloudy skies but the sun should poke through a good
amount today, however. Temperatures will
continue to rise and will be up around freezing at 10,000’ by the end of the
day. Ridge top winds will be from the
west at around 15 mph and will pick up a little as the day progresses.
The
next storm still promises to produce snow starting Monday with a few systems affecting
the state through Wednesday afternoon.
Winds will be a little stronger then the last storm especially tonight
getting into the 45 mph range at 10,000’.
Temperatures will start to cool Monday and will continue downward into
the teens by late Tuesday or early Wednesday.
A couple of feet of snow is not out of the
question by Wednesday.
The
Powderbird guides were in
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.
Thanks for calling.