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,
March 31, 2006 7:30 am
Good morning, this is Drew Hardesty with
the
Current Conditions:
Skies are overcast with
increasing southerly winds ahead of yet another Pacific storm set for tomorrow
afternoon. Temperatures are in the upper
teens to low twenties with south to southeasterly winds blowing 20-25mph with
gusts into the mid-40’s. Breakable crust
covers the lower elevations, flats, and south through east facing slopes, but
you can find good settled powder on the high north through west.
Recent Avalanche Activity & Snowpack Discussion:
Run-of-the-mill cornice
drops and slope cuts pulled out soft
slabs (more
photos) 10-24” deep and 100’ wide along the upper elevation lee ridge and
sub-ridgelines. Explosive control work
crow-barred a few hard slabs up to 3’ deep within the ski areas, but I feel a
backcountry traveler would have been hard-pressed to get the same results. With warming and in the absence of a
persistent weak layer, things settled out pretty well by midday. While many of the sun exposed slopes were
cooked with sun and greenhousing, instability showers kept the lid on any
significant wet activity. A couple
parties enjoyed some thrill and excitement with cornices
in upper LCC.
One skier topping out in upper Days Fork rode the boxcar halfway down
Days, losing some gear, while another party near Tuscarora had the wave break
behind them. Fortunately, the cornice
lifted and cantilevered into the slope below without fully breaking off.
Most of yesterday’s
sensitivity will have settled out, but this morning’s increasing winds will
likely cook up a fresh batch of localized wind drifts along the upper elevation
ridgelines. They will be most prominent
on west through northeast facing aspects and should be reactive to cornice
drops, slope cuts, and pole-column tests.
There is an outlier issue of buried and insulated saturated wet
snow from the rain at the lower elevations.
Glide
cracks last week were precursors to a glide
avalanche yesterday. More details on
our avalanche list
later this morning.
Bottom Line:
We’ll have a MODERATE danger on upper
elevation west through northeast wind drifted slopes. Cross-loading may result in some drifting of
the off aspects as well. Human triggered
slides will be possible with the stronger south to southeasterly winds.
Mountain Weather:
Increasing winds and clouds
will precede a few light showers this afternoon. The southerly winds will increase to 30mph
with gusts to 50 along the highest ridgelines by the afternoon. 8000 highs will reach 30 degrees with 10,000’
temps to the mid-twenties. The next storm
should bring us 6-12” by early Sunday with another storm set for mid-week.
Announcements:
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
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 Saturday morning. Thanks for calling.