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
Friday, December 16, 2005 7:30am
Good morning,
this is Bruce Tremper with the
The beacon locator park at Snowbird is now open and
free to the public. It’s sponsored by
Wasatch Backcountry Rescue and Snowbird and located just off the bypass road in
upper Little Cottonwood Canyon.
Our apologies to those who showed up for the avalanche class we advertised for
last Wednesday night at High Mountain Motor Sports. Apparently there was a miscommunication on
the date and the shop could not change their plans on short notice, so they
cancelled the class. Hopefully, we can
re-schedule.
Current Conditions:
Temperatures have warmed from zero degrees a couple days ago to a balmy 10
degrees on the ridge tops this morning with a 10 mph wind from the northwest. Backcountry riding conditions remain very
good on about 6 inches of soft, recrystallized snow on the northerly, wind-sheltered
slopes. But many of the above-tree line
slopes have wind damage and the south facing slopes have a sun crust.
Avalanche Conditions:
A skier triggered a small avalanche yesterday in Toledo Chute, which is a very
steep, southeast facing slope around 10,000’ across the road from Alta. Their ski cut produced a shallow 2-6 inch deep
wind slab that broke out about 75 feet wide and ran 100 feet. So, a few wind slabs still linger especially
on the steep, shallow, rocky, and wind exposed terrain. Also, from a distance, someone noticed a
couple fresh fractures in
Despite these localized instabilities, the overall avalanche danger remains low. It has been several days since we had strong
winds and the cold temperatures and clear skies continue to rot out the snow
surface into very weak, faceted snow that runs through your fingers like salt
crystals. In the thin snowpack areas, the
entire snowpack is rapidly turning into weak, depth hoar. But to make an avalanche, you need a slab on
top of the weak layer. Right now—with the
exception of some of the lingering wind drifts—we’re missing the slab. If significant new snow or wind creates a slab
on top of this weak snow, it will certainly produce some very dangerous
avalanche conditions. But in until then,
the snow seems content to sit quietly and the weather seems content to not give
us a slab.
Bottom
Line:
For today most
slopes have a LOW
danger with isolated pockets of MODERATE danger on
upper elevation, steep slopes with lingering wind drifts.
Mountain Weather:
Today, we have a
few clouds coming in from the north and they could produce some scattered,
light snow showers. Ridge top
temperatures should remain 10-15 degrees with ridge top winds around 10 mph
from the northwest. Down at 8,000’ temperatures
should rise to the mid 20’s.
Temperatures should remain cool on Saturday, but then we have warmer air
from the west pushing in for Sunday and Monday, which will raise the ridge top
temperatures into the mid 20’s. Right
now, we don’t see any significant snow in the forecast, but we should start to
get more weak disturbances from the west starting Sunday.
Regional
Snow Profile (this profile can also be
found daily off our home page under avalanche products)
Seasonal Weather History Charts.
Wasatch
Powderbird Guides will be in Mineral Fork, Cardiff Fork, Silver Fork, Days Fork
and Grizzly Gulch.
We
appreciate any backcountry snow and avalanche conditions you observe. Call (801) 524-5304 or 1-800-662-4140, email [email protected] or fax 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.)
UDOT also has a highway avalanche control work
hotline for Little Cottonwood road, which is updated as needed. 801-975-4838.
The annual report for 2004-05 is now on the web.
(Click HERE,
8mb)
Evelyn Lees will
update this advisory by 7:30 Saturday morning.
Thanks for calling.