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 08, 2006 7:30am
Good morning, this is Evelyn Lees with
the
Current Conditions:
It’s a calm, clear morning in the
mountains, with the northerly winds generally less than 15 mph. Temperatures have warmed into the 20’s and
30’s, with slightly cooler air pooled in the drainage bottoms. The sunny, southeast through westerly facing
slopes are crusted this morning, but will rapidly soften to slop. The shady, northerly facing slopes retain
good powder, with a few patches of wind damage.
Avalanche Conditions:
There was a very close call in the
backcountry yesterday. Two avalanche
workers were examining different crowns in the south facing Monte Cristo slide
path in upper Little Cottonwood, when a party above inadvertently released a
cornice, hitting the upper worker and triggering a slab avalanche that ran
1500‘. The upper worker was caught and
carried, eventually self arresting to avoid a fatal ride, and the slide missed
the lower person. In spite of almost
killing two people and wasting $1000 worth of gear, the cornice droppers didn’t
even offer an apology. Bottom line: Just because you have two
strong legs, good lungs and can make turns doesn’t mean you belong in the
backcountry. You need good avalanche
and backcountry travel skills, and before you drop cornices, jump off cliffs,
ski cut slopes or drop steep lines, you must be CERTAIN that no one is below you.
So, while the snowpack is mostly stable,
there are obviously a few problems to watch out for. First, as the day heats up, the snow on
steep, sunny slopes will become wet and sloppy, with both natural and human
triggered wet sluffs and slabs possible.
So when the snow heats up, get off steep slopes and stay out of the runout
zones and gullies below. Secondly, there
are a few rogue wind
slabs that can be triggered
on steep slopes, in addition to loose snow sluffs on the very steep shady slopes.
And finally, cornices are sensitive. They are breaking back further than expected and
can be triggered from a distance.
Bottom Line:
This morning, the avalanche danger is generally LOW, but
will rise to MODERATE on and below steep, sun
exposed slopes with day time heating.
Cornices are very sensitive, and there are isolated places where a
person could trigger a sluff or wind slab on the shady slopes.
Mountain Weather:
High pressure will be over the area through the remainder of the
week. Wednesday and Thursday will be
copycat days, with clear skies and light northerly winds. Highs will be in the low forties at 8,000’
and near freezing at 10,000’. Temperatures
will cool slightly on Friday, but according to the models, no snow is in sight
through the weekend.
Click here for the National
Weather Service graphic Forecast.
Announcements:
Click here to check out our new online avalanche
encyclopedia.
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.
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
Wasatch
Powderbird Guides flew 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.