In partnership with: Utah Division of State
Parks and Recreation, The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center, Utah Department
of Emergency Services and Homeland Security and
AVALANCHE ADVISORY
Monday, November 28, 2005 7:30am
Good morning,
this is Drew Hardesty with the
There will be two showings of the new TGR film
“Tangerine Dream” at Brewvies Thursday, December 1, at 7 and 9 pm. This is a fundraiser for the UAC, sponsored
by our partner, The Friends of the
Next week our staff will be giving two free
avalanche awareness talks. The first is
Tuesday, November 29th at the Salt Lake REI. The second is Thursday, December 1st
at the Sandy REI. Both are at 7pm. These talks are great for all ages and all
types of recreation.
For a quick glance at avalanche classes in the
Current Conditions:
Lake-effect bands trickled another 1-3” of snow into the central Wasatch
mountains overnight, but skies should start to clear this morning for a pleasant
day in the hills. The northwest winds
remain light, averaging less than 15mph and temperatures are in the single
digits at most mountain locations above about 8500’. Storm totals from Saturday/Sunday range from
14-20” in the Ogden and Uinta mountains, 8-12” in the
Avalanche Conditions:
A select few of
those in search of the odd wind pocket were able to find and trigger them in a
few steep wind drifted slopes and roll-overs, but this seemed to be the
exception and not the rule. These were generally
less than 8” deep and 20’ or so wide.
The anomalies were in two avalanches that ran on the interface of the
storm snow and the weak faceted snow formed during the previous couple weeks of
high pressure. These were up to 2’ deep and
triggered on steep north and east upper elevation slopes in the upper
Cottonwoods, one by a slope cut, the other with control work at one of the ski
areas. I don’t expect all of these
drifts to have completely settled out, so look for and avoid any smooth,
pillowy, rounded drifts in steep isolated terrain in the upper elevations.
If Saturday’s saving grace was that there just wasn’t
enough cohesion to form a slab, yesterday’s was that there just wasn’t enough
of a load to get things going. With the
next storm on Tuesday expected to come in warm and wet, I would expect
significantly more problems in the backcountry.
What currently looks like this (SNOW
PROFILE) now may look like this
by late tomorrow.
Bottom Line:
The avalanche
danger is LOW on
all non wind-drifted slopes. An isolated
MODERATE danger
remains on any slope steeper than 35 degrees with recent wind deposits.
Mountain Weather:
We can expect partly
cloudy skies, light northwest winds and temperatures in the single digits at
10,000’ and in the upper teens at 8000’.
Increasing clouds and a wind shift to the west southwest will announce
the next storm system, due to arrive late tonight. This storm will be significantly warmer and
may produce significant snow for the mountains of northern
Seasonal Weather History Charts. (NOTE:
USE INTERNET EXPLORER FOR BEST VIEWING)
Please
report any backcountry snow and avalanche conditions you observe. We need all the information we can get. You can call (801) 524-5304 or
1-800-662-4140, or email to [email protected]
or fax to 801-524-6301. 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.
To
have this advisory automatically e-mailed to you each day, click HERE. (You must re-sign up this season even if you
were on the list last season.)
The annual report for 2004-05 is now on the web.
(Click HERE,
8mb)
Brett
Kobernik will update this advisory Tuesday morning. Thanks for calling.