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

Tuesday, February 21, 2006  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 Tuesday, February 21, 2006, and it’s about 7:30 am.

 

Life flight will be conducting training operations at the Spruces area in Big Cottonwood Canyon today.

 

I’ll be giving a free Avalanche Awareness talk tonight at the SLC REI at 7pm.  Evelyn will give the same talk at the Sandy REI Thursday night at 7pm. 

 

A long time fundraiser for the Utah Avalanche Center, the Banff Mountain Film Festival is coming back to town tonight and tomorrow night , February 21st and 22nd at Kingsbury Hall.  You can get tickets at Kingsbury Hall, Art-Tix, the Outdoor Rec Program at the U and REI.  For more info, call 581-8516.

 

Current Conditions:

Temperatures remain quite cold under this west to northwest flow and it’s difficult to find mountain locations this morning above the single digits.  That and the intermittent cloud cover has very well preserved the cold smoke and all the heroes are lighting up the hero snow on any and all bold lines in the Central Wasatch.  The winds now play the role as spoiler, averaging 30 mph with gusts to 40 along the more exposed ridgelines.  Off the ridges, the winds drop to 10-15 mph.  You’ll find sun crusts on most southerly aspects, with champagne on the north.

 

Avalanche Conditions:

Not much drama yesterday in the backcountry with sluffing the only thing to write home about.  Some of these sluffs are starting to have enough oomph as they pick up steam.  One skier can vouch for this, having been carried 75’ on a steep slope until the slope angle eased.  The winds, however, will drift the new smoke into sensitive soft slabs found primarily along the higher elevation northeast through southeast facing slopes.  They’ll be manageable, perhaps up to a foot or so deep, breaking just off the ridgelines with a slope cut or cornice drop.  Unlike hard slabs or wise blue ribbon trout, you won’t have to dig deep into your bag of tricks to get results.   

 

Bottom Line:

Upper elevation wind drifted slopes steeper than 35 degrees will have a localized MODERATE danger today.  In addition, watch for sluffing in the new snow that may pile up in confined tracks or abrupt transitions.  Non-wind affected areas have a mostly LOW danger. If the sun comes out for long periods of time, watch for wet loose sluffs on steep sun-exposed slopes.

 

Mountain Weather:

Skies will be partly to mostly cloudy with a few random flakes thrown in for good measure.  8000’ highs will reach 20 degrees while 10,000’ temps remain in the single digits.  The west to northwest winds will be 15-20mph today with locally higher averages at 11,000’.  We have a relatively uneventful weather pattern lined up for the rest of the week and into the weekend. 

 

Announcements:

Click here to check out our new online avalanche encyclopedia.

 

Early birds and snow geeks can catch our 6AM report at 364-1591.

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 Provo canyons, which is updated as needed. 801-975-4838.

Wasatch Powderbirds flew in Snake Creek yesterday and are poised to hit Silver, Days, Cardiff, Mineral, Grizzly, White Pine, the Sessions, and Lambs.  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.

Evelyn Lees will update this advisory by 7:30 Wednesday morning.  Thanks for calling.