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

Saturday, January 21, 2006  7:30am
Good morning, this is Brett Kobernik with the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center with your backcountry avalanche and mountain weather advisory.  Today is Saturday, January 21, 2006, and it’s about 7:30 am.

 

          Current Conditions:

Friday was another one of those days; top 10, best ever, you should have been there, blah, blah, blah.  Most slopes have excellent riding conditions with mostly stable snow.  Temperatures stayed cool yesterday and remain in the mid teens.  South and southwest facing slopes did receive a sun crust yesterday.  Ridgetop winds were fairly calm but picked up slightly late afternoon and are now in the 10 to 20 mph range from a westerly direction.

 

Avalanche Conditions:
We can’t ask for much better.  The snowpack is deep and consistent in the mountains of northern Utah.  Currently, we do not have any persistent weak layers however you still can get clean shears in the upper portion of the snowpack if you try hard.  These shears will continue to become harder to produce over the next few days.

 

For today we need to pay attention to the snow surface.  The wind did transport some snow late yesterday and, with a few inches of new expected today along with some moderate wind speeds, you may be able to find a pocket or two that might crack out along the upper ridgelines.  Larger sluffs may present a few problems yet today so watch for this on the steeper slopes.


Bottom Line:

Most areas have a LOW avalanche danger.  Just enough wind and some new snow do demand a MODERATE danger on steep upper elevation wind affected slopes mainly on North through southeast aspects.  Continue to practice safe backcountry protocol by sending one person at a time onto steep slopes and make sure to completely clear the runout zones.

 

Mountain Weather:

Today we’ll see overcast skies with snow flurries adding 2 to 4 inches of new snow.  Ridgetop temperatures will be in the teens and ridgetop winds will be 10 to 20 mph from the west shifting slightly northwest and decreasing this afternoon.  Sunday we’ll see partial clearing then a stretch of dry weather through at least Thursday.

Announcements:

3rd Annual Backcountry Awareness Week Monday Jan 30-Sunday February 5
Fundraising Dinner February 3rd at 6pm with speakers Conrad Anker and Apa Sherpa.  For more info, go to www.backcountryawareness.com or call Snowbird at 933-2147.

 

Check out our new graphical advisory format.  You can update your bookmarks to this link:
http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/newadvisory/advisory.php

Click HERE for a text only version of the avalanche advisory.

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.

Yesterday the Wasatch Powderbird Guides were in Cardiff, Days, and American Fork and if they can fly today, they’ll be in Mineral, Cardiff, Days, Silver, White Pine, American Fork and Lambs Canyon.  For more info, call 742-2800.

Please report any backcountry snow and avalanche conditions.  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.

Drew Hardesty will update this advisory by 7:30 Sunday morning.  Thanks for calling.