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

Wednesday, April 06, 2005
Good morning, this is Evelyn Lees with the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center with your backcountry avalanche and mountain weather advisory.  Today is Wednesday, April 06, 2005, and its 7:30 in the morning. Today’s advisory on our web page contains a user survey. Please take a few minutes to complete it so we can better our forecasts for you. The web site is utahavalanchecenter.com, click on Wasatch Range.

Current Conditions:
The ridge is now centered over Utah, and temperatures will sizzle today. Under clear skies, there was a good hard freeze at all elevations last night, but the mercury has already started its upward march. While the mountain valley bottoms may still be in the twenties, it’s now near 32 degrees at 10,000’. The winds are light, less than 15 mph, from a northerly direction. Being spring, the snow rapidly went from powder to slop yesterday, and most slopes will be crusted this morning. The best place to find the last of the soft snow will be on upper elevation, northerly facing slopes.

Avalanche Conditions:
Yesterday, avalanche activity consisted of the expected mix of loose sluffs and a few shallow soft slabs on steep slopes of all aspects. The slides were both wet and dry, depending on slope aspect and time of day, and wind drifted slopes were the most sensitive. (Skier triggered wind drift on Superior, photo of crown)

Today, with the rapid jump in temperatures, I expect much more widespread wet snow avalanche activity. While these slides are fairly predictable and should be limited to the new snow only, don’t get complacent. With the crusts beneath the new snow forming a good bed surface on almost all aspects, slides are running faster and further than one would expect. Once a slide or sluff gets moving, the crusts will allow entrainment of the snow all the way down the track, and debris piles could be much deeper and larger than normal. Steep sunny slopes will be the most active, but remember that at this time of year very few slopes are truly “shady” any more. The snow on mid and low elevation northerly facing slopes will also heat up.

Bottom Line (Salt Lake and Park City, Ogden and Provo mountains):
Most areas have a LOW avalanche danger this morning. The danger will rapidly rise to MODERATE with daytime heating on and below steep slopes of all aspects. In continuous steep terrain, especially in areas that received more than about 10” of snow, the danger may rise to CONDSIDERABLE.
Danger Scale: http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/ed-scale.htm

Mountain Weather: (You can find the afternoon Weather Update here.)
A strong ridge of high pressure has moved in over northern Utah. Skies will be clear today, and temperatures dramatically warmer. 8000’ highs will be in the low to mid 50’s, with 10,000’ highs reaching the upper 30’s. Winds will be light, generally less than 10 mph, and variable in direction. After a warm, non freezing night, Thursday will have near record breaking temperatures. Clouds and winds will increase Thursday ahead of a series of pacific storms that will move through the area Friday and Saturday. So, if you missed Tuesday’s powder fix, this weekend’s conditions could even be better.

Wasatch Powderbird guides were in Cardiff, Days, Silver, and Grizzly yesterday and today will be in Cardiff, Days, Silver, Mineral, Grizzly and White Pine.

UDOT COTTONWOOD CANYONS HOTLINE FOR ROAD CLOSURE AND AVALANCHE CONTROL INFORMATION: 975-4838.

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 this advisory by 7:30 on Thursday morning.

Thanks for calling.