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
Monday,
March 06, 2006 7:30am
Good morning, this is Drew Hardesty with
the
Current Conditions:
With warm air streaming in ahead of
tonight’s storm, overnight lows are in the upper twenties and low thirties, about
10 degrees warmer than the night before.
The winds picked up yesterday out of the south and southwest blowing in
the 20’s and have increased to 25 mph out of the southeast. Cloud cover will build through the day with light
rain/snow falling by mid-morning.
Recent Avalanche Activity & Snowpack Discussion:
We have two avalanche problems in the
snowpack right now, those that I refer to as “manageable”, and those that go by
many other names, but we’ll just call them “unmanageable”. The localized sensitive soft
slabs (another
photo) from yesterday’s southerly winds fall under the manageable category,
where they are pretty predictable and break just at your skis or board. The few that were triggered yesterday were
just off the ridgelines or below a steep rollover in exposed terrain. Now for the unmanageable
slides. Two parties remotely
triggered two avalanches yesterday, one in mid Little Cottonwood canyon and the
other along the
Winds will continue to whip the snow into sensitive
soft slabs today over a wider expanse of terrain. With more of a load now on the buried weak
layers, remotely triggered avalanches may be more prevalent in upper elevation
shady terrain.
Bottom Line:
Areas of CONSIDERABLE
danger exist on some mid and upper elevation steep slope with recent deposits
of wind drifted snow. While they may be
most prevalent along the upper elevation northwest through northeast facing
slopes, terrain channeling can load any aspect.
Human triggered slides are probable with a few naturals possible in the
steepest upper elevation terrain. Sheltered terrain unaffected by the wind will
have a LOW
danger today.
Mountain Weather:
The next Pacific storm is racing in from the west and we’ll initially see
light rain up to about 8000’, with the rain/snow line dropping slowly
throughout the day. The southerly winds
will continue to the tune of 25-30mph along the high ridgelines, before
dropping off after the front moves through overnight. 10,000’ temps will drop to the low twenties
tonight. Favored locations should pick
up a foot of snow with light snowfall continuing intermittently Tuesday and
Wednesday ahead of a colder, more potent storm on Thursday.
Announcements:
Here is a great link to a web site on avalanche beacon
information, created by a person who did independent research and testing of
avalanche beacons. http://beaconreviews.com/transceivers/index.htm
There are several free automated avalanche beacon practice areas open, including one at Canyons, one on the by-pass road near Snowbird and one in the northwest corner of the lower lot at Solitude. They are really easy to use, and well worth stopping for a quick practice session.
Early birds and snow
geeks can catch our 6AM report at 364-1591.
Click here to check out our new online avalanche
encyclopedia.
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 flew in the Sessions, American Fork and White Pine yesterday
and are unlikely to get out today. 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.
Brett Kobernik will update this advisory by 7:30 Tuesday morning. Thanks for calling.