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,
February 10, 2006 7:30am
Good morning, this is Bruce Tremper with
the
Current Conditions:
Today will be another day in paradise with
bluebird skies and near-freezing temperatures along the ridge tops and around
45 degrees down at 8,000’. This morning,
the ridge top winds have picked up and are blowing 20 mph on the most exposed
ridges. Snow surface conditions include
sun crusted snow on the south facing slopes and some occasional tricky wind
slabs but the wind and sun sheltered slopes still have quite nice
recrystallized snow.
Avalanche Conditions:
First, we want to apologize for our
ranting yesterday when a backcountry party triggered a cornice and very nearly killed
two UDOT avalanche workers below on Monte Cristo in Little Cottonwood
Canyon. As avalanche workers, we all
have several close friends who have been killed in avalanches and we all live
in constant fear of it ourselves. So
when some of our closet friends and most respected avalanche workers have a
close call, we tend to get tweaked. It
sounds like it was unintentional and an honest mistake—something that many of
us have done in the past. But we still
shouldn’t loose the lesson that we all need to be careful about traveling above
other parties in avalanche terrain—something that is often overlooked in the
urban backcountry of the Wasatch. On
most ski patrols, traveling above your partner is considered to be tantamount
to attempted homicide and the infraction often dealt with severely.
On another note, no avalanches were observed or triggered in the backcountry
yesterday despite many people riding big, bold lines. Today you will have just a couple minor
problems to consider. First, the strong
sun may make some localized wet sluffs on steep south facing slopes today. Second, the ridge top winds will pick up and
blow 20-30 from the northwest and north.
Although there isn’t much snow to blow around, the wind may create some
isolated wind deposits especially along the ridges. Finally, this warm weather makes the cornices
sensitive, so you should continue to give them a wide berth.
Bottom Line:
This morning, the avalanche danger is LOW, with
isolated pockets of MODERATE
danger on and below steep, sun exposed slopes with day time heating. There is also pockets of MODERATE
danger on steep slopes with recent wind deposits, which you will find mainly
along the ridges.
Mountain Weather:
We should have sunny and warm weather again today with ridge top
temperatures near freezing and 45 degrees down at 8,000’. Ridge top winds will pick up and blow 20-30
mph from the north and northwest as a cold pocket of air passes east of
us. By Friday afternoon, temperatures
will plummet down to around 10 degrees on the ridge tops with continued
moderate to strong northerly winds. Then
we should spring back to warmer temperatures later in the weekend and early
next week. Finally, we should get a very
cold storm on about Wednesday, which will make ridge top temperatures drop down
below zero. 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 yesterday Cascade,
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.
Brett Kobernik will update this advisory by 7:30 Friday morning. Thanks for calling.