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
Saturday, December 10, 2005 7:30am
Good morning,
this is Evelyn Lees with the
UDOT has a highway avalanche
control work hotline for Little Cottonwood road, which is updated as needed.
801-975-4838.
Up coming avalanche awareness talks by the UAC
staff include:
Dec 13 7 pm REI, 3285 E, 3300 S, SLC
Dec 14 6:30 pm Mountain
High Motorsports,
Dec 14 7 pm South Valley Unitarian,
Current Conditions:
High pressure continues to dominate the weather over northern
Avalanche Conditions:
While the snowpack is mostly stable, there are still two avalanche problems that
require caution today. First, the brisk northwesterly
winds have created new drifts along the upper elevation ridgelines. These drifts could crack out under the weight
of a person, so avoid any drifts of wind blown snow on steep slopes.
The second lingering avalanche problem is possibility
of triggering a slide on the weak, sugary facets near the ground. The most likely place a person would trigger
one of these deeper slides would be on a steep slope facing northwest through
east, that is above about 9000 feet and has a shallower, thin snow pack. Avoid shady slopes with extra steep rollovers
and shallow rocky areas where the snow depth may be less than about 3’ deep. As you travel, plunge your ski pole handle
down into the snow to the ground to estimate the snowpack depth.
As
you head into the backcountry today practice safe travel techniques - only one person
on a steep slope at a time, watch each other from safe locations, carry rescue
gear: beacons, shovels, and probes, and be well practiced at performing a rescue.
Bottom Line:
Many slopes have a
LOW avalanche
danger today. However, a MODERATE danger
remains on any slope steeper than about 35 degrees with new drifts of wind
blown snow and on shady, upper elevation slopes steeper than about 35 degrees
that have a thin snowpack. With daytime
heating, it may be possible to trigger a few wet sluffs today.
Mountain Weather:
High pressure over
northern
Regional
Snow Profile (this profile can also
be found daily off our home page under avalanche products)
Seasonal Weather History Charts.
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)
Drew Hardesty
will update this advisory by 7:30 Sunday morning. Thanks for calling.