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
Sunday, December 04, 2005 7:30am
Good morning,
this is Drew Hardesty with the
Up coming avalanche awareness talks by the UAC
staff include:
Dec 6 7 pm Full Throttle Power Sports 240 N Frontage Rd, Centerville
Dec 6 7 pm Black Diamond Retail 2092 E 3900 S, SLC
Dec 7 7 pm Lady of the Snows, Alta
Dec 13 7 pm REI, 3285 E, 3300 S, SLC
Dec 14 6:60 pm Mnt High Motorsports, 8262 S Redwood Rd, West
Jordan
Dec 14 7 pm South Valley Unitarian,
6876 S Highland Dr.
Wasatch Touring will sponsor the 1st annual
Avalanche Roundtable discussion on Monday, December 5th at 7:30 pm in
Memory Grove at the Memorial House. Three avalanche survivors will tell
their stories, including mountaineer Jeff Lowe, and locals Rick Hoffman and
Steve Walcher. It is free and open to the
public.
Current Conditions:
Blizzard conditions rage in the central Wasatch high country this morning with
heavy snowfall and blustery winds. Overnight,
the mountains from Ogden to Salt Lake picked up another 8-12”, pushing storm
totals to about 2-3’. Densities are in
the 6-8% range despite periodic graupling. The west to northwest winds along the
ridgelines intensified this morning to 35-45mph with gusts to the 60’s but this
should ease off late morning as the disturbance moves through. Temperatures plummeted to the single digits
and below zero above 11,000’.
Avalanche Conditions:
For backcountry travelers
that make it into the high country, human triggered slides in the new snow will
be likely on all steep drifted slopes, with a very distinct possibility of some
stepping down into the older, weaker snow layers. Mostly confined to mid and upper elevation
northwest through north through east facing slopes, these larger slides may be
greater than 3-6’ deep and more than a few hundred feet wide. These larger slides may be even more
pronounced in the outlying areas, such as the
Headlining the avalanche news from yesterday was a
skier released slide in No-Name bowl off the Park City ridgeline, a north to
northeast facing slope at about 9800’.
Details are still filtering in, but it appears that with eleven tracks
already on the slope, a skier released the entire bowl 3-5’ deep and possibly
600’ wide. The slide not only engulfed
the skier, but his three partners waiting for him below. All were partially buried, with one
near-complete burial, but everyone came out miraculously unscathed. Avalanche
control work in the Cottonwoods are seeing avalanches up to 7’ deep while
explosive work at one of the Park City areas continue to pull out slides to the
ground in uncompacted terrain.
Bottom Line:
The avalanche
danger is CONSIDERABLE with human
triggered avalanches likely on steep drifted slopes, with the real potential
for them to step down into older faceted snow. Naturals may be possible in upper elevation
areas that received the most snow and wind. Avalanches may be triggered at a
distance, and as evidenced by yesterday’s close call, tracks are not necessarily
a sign of stability with the current snowpack.
Mountain Weather:
A moist and
unstable northwest flow will remain over the area through the rest of the
day. Another 4 to 8 inches of low
density fluff can be expected in areas favored by northwest flow. The storm moves off to the east later tonight
with gradual warming tonight and tomorrow.
Ridgetop winds will be 20-25mph from the northwest. 8000’ highs will be in the low teens with
10,000’ temps in the low single digits. A
weak unsettled northwest flow drives the weather pattern for the week.
Seasonal Weather History Charts. (NOTE: USE INTERNET EXPLORER FOR BEST VIEWING)
Please
report any backcountry snow and avalanche conditions you observe. We appreciate all information. 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)
I
will update this advisory Monday morning.
Thanks for calling.