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 20, 2006 7:30 am
Good morning, this is Drew Hardesty with
the
Current Conditions:
Skies are partly to mostly
cloudy this morning with the mountains picking up only an additional inch or
two overnight. Bruce’s analogy of the
swirling brontosaurus is difficult to forget, and seems once again apropos for this
exiting storm system. The winds
remained light and variable during the event while 1-2’ of snow fell in the
higher terrain. Temperatures are in the
upper single digits and mid-teens.
Except for the sunny aspects, riding conditions are sweet.
Recent Avalanche Activity & Snowpack Discussion:
High snowfall rates produced
a localized shallow natural cycle in the higher terrain on a variety of aspects
in the Tri-Canyons yesterday, with most
1’ deep and less than 100’ wide. The
cycle wrapped up in the mid a.m., but travelers prodded many more
into moving with cornice drops and ski cuts as the stability was on the
rise. By the afternoon, heating dampened
many south facing slopes, resulting in at least one healthy unintentionally
triggered wet sluff in mid-Big
Things were much more
interesting in
Due to time, settlement, and
warming temperatures, many, but not all, of the instabilities in the snowpack
of the central and northern Wasatch will have healed. You could trigger many soft slabs at will
yesterday, but today they’ll be more stubborn, pockety and much less widely
distributed. Safe travel protocol and the usual combat
techniques in the backcountry will still be required.
Bottom Line:
A MODERATE danger
with the storm snow will linger on through today in the steepest terrain that
received the most snow. Naturals are not
expected and the instabilities of yesterday will be much more stubborn and pockety. If the sun comes out for any amount of time,
watch for the danger of wet activity to jump to MODERATE on all sun exposed slopes.
If the southwesterly winds pick up earlier than expected, watch for a
batch of freshly blown wind drifts along the lee of ridgelines and breakovers.
Mountain Weather:
Intermittent snow showers will follow in the wake of the exiting storm
system off to the east. Brief ridging
will develop this afternoon ahead of the next weakening storm system due to
arrive tonight into tomorrow. Winds
today will generally be light and variable with mountain temps in the upper
teens to upper twenties. We’ll have
mostly to partly cloudy skies and maybe an additional accumulation of an inch
or so. The southwest winds should pick
up into the 20mph range later this afternoon.
Tuesday’s storm looks like a 4-7” event with high pressure set for the
remainder of the week. The next system
moves through late in the weekend.
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
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 didn’t get out yesterday and if they can fly
today will be in AF-out through White Pine, and will trade for a Tri-canyon
permit to be in Silver, Days,
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.