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
Wednesday,
February 01, 2006 7:30am
Good morning, this is Evelyn Lees with
the
Current Conditions:
This morning, winds and temperatures are increasing
ahead of a rapidly approaching warm front.
Across the ridges, the westerly winds are in the 15 to 25 mph range, with
gusts in the 30’s. Temperatures have
warmed into the upper teens to mid 20’s.
Wind sheltered, shady slopes at mid and upper elevations have loose,
settled powder this morning, with many other slopes sun or wind damaged. Today’s new snow may be warmer and denser than
the snow it’s landing on, creating punchy riding conditions.
Avalanche Conditions:
In last 4 days there have been at least 6 unintentionally
triggered slides, failing on a variety of weak layers. This is a giant hint that the snowpack is
less stable than earlier in January, and that recognizing the stability pattern
is getting trickier. Yesterday, a skier
in the
Today, the most widespread avalanche
problem will be fresh wind drifts created by the strong westerly winds. These drifts will increase in depth and
number throughout the day, and will be found both along the ridges and well off
the ridgelines, cross loaded around gully walls, sub ridges and
breakovers. Avoid any steep slope with
wind drifted snow today, and stay well away from cornices as they may break
back further than expected.
Today, in isolated places, it will be
possible to trigger a deeper and more dangerous slide that takes out the snow from
two or more storms. The weight of the new
snow could overload some of the more deeply buried weak layers in the snowpack,
including surface hoar and near surface facets. Triggering one of these larger slides will be
more likely in the
Bottom Line:
The avalanche danger is increasing
today due to strong winds, warming temperatures and new snow. This morning, the avalanche danger is MODERATE on slopes steeper than about 35 degrees, especially
slopes with recent drifts of wind blown snow.
With additional wind and snow, the danger will rise to CONSIDERABLE on steep, wind drifted slopes later
today. Considerable means human
triggered avalanches are probable and natural avalanches possible. Natural avalanches may also be possible at the
lower elevations if it starts to rain on the snow.
Mountain Weather:
A warm front is racing into northwestern
Click here for the National
Weather Service graphic Forecast.
Announcements:
Early birds and snow
geeks can catch our 6AM report at 364-1591.
You can find our mountain
weather forecast here
by about noon each day.
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, call Snowbird at
933-2147. Visit www.backcountryawareness.com
for more details.
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.
UDOT also has a highway avalanche control work
hotline for Big Cottonwood, Little Cottonwood, and
The
Wasatch Powderbird Guides didn’t get out yesterday and if the weather allows they
will fly in
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.