Wasatch Cache National Forest
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 Salt Lake County.

AVALANCHE ADVISORY

Sunday, December 18, 2005 7:30am
Good morning, this is Drew Hardesty with the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center with your backcountry avalanche and mountain weather advisory. Today is Sunday, December 18, 2005, and it’s about 7:30 am.

We are giving two free avalanche awareness talks next week:
Dec 20^th 7pm Wasatch Touring, SLC
Dec 21^st 7pm Wanship Fire Station

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.

Current Conditions:
While the Salt Lake mountains picked up a measly 3” in the past 24 hours, the Mt. Ogden/Snowbasin area cashed in with a running total of about 16” or so. The steep western flank of the Ogden massif managed to wring densities of 5-8% out of the warm and moist air, which, in turn, should result in gridlock this morning along the Trapper’s Loop road. It’s still snowing, however, lightly. Mountain temperatures are in the low to mid teens this morning with westerly winds blowing 10-15mph along the ridgelines. Shady wind-sheltered slopes still boast good riding conditions; however the snowpack is getting weak and punchy at the low and mid elevations.

Avalanche Conditions:
Not much to report in the way of avalanches from Saturday. We have mostly stable conditions, but with increasing snowfall, watch for sluffing in the steepest terrain on any aspect of the compass. Thursday’s skier-triggered 2-6” by 75’ soft slab in upper Little Cottonwood illustrated the sensitivity of the weak sugar snow beneath Tuesday’s wind event and field tests still show this to be sensitive. There still may be a few of these in isolated terrain, so apart from the sluffing, I’d still recommend caution if moving through the steepest upper elevation terrain today where consequences matter.

Bottom Line:
The avalanche danger is generally LOW. If we pick up more snow than expected, the danger of increased sluffing and shallow soft slabs in steep mid and upper elevation terrain will rise to MODERATE. Due to the higher snowfall, the Ogden area mountains around Snowbasin have a MODERATE danger.

Mountain Weather:
The exiting storm system will bring another 2-5” of snow today to the mountains on a weak west to southwesterly flow. Ridgetop temperatures will be in the mid-teens while 8000’ highs will be in the mid-twenties. Winds will be 15-20mph from the west. Another moist storm will move into the Wasatch late this afternoon through tomorrow that looks a bit more promising, with totals up to a foot in favored locations. High pressure will return for mid week.

Regional Snow Profile (this profile can also be found daily off our home page under avalanche products)

Seasonal Weather History Charts.

Yesterday, Wasatch Powderbird Guides didn’t get out due to weather. If they can get out today, they’ll be in AF, Cascade and the Park City circuit. For more info, call 742-2800.

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)

I will update this advisory by 7:30 Monday morning. Thanks for calling.