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
Sunday,
April 02, 2006 7:30 am
Good morning, this is Drew Hardesty with
the
Current Conditions:
The mountains gained another
4-6” with the cold front, pushing storm totals to 6-9” in the Ogden, Provo, and
Park City mountains, and about 10-14” in the Cottonwoods. The south to westerly winds cranked hourly
averages into the 25-35mph range with gusts to 50, but have since calmed to
less than 15 mph since midnight. Skies are
mostly clear and temperatures have fallen into the mid to low teens.
Recent Avalanche Activity & Snowpack Discussion:
What’s the saying? God looks out for drunks, fools, and April
Fools? Some days you can’t buy an
avalanche, other days they’re giving them away for free. The stronger southwesterly and then westerly
winds whipped up the snow in a hurry and nearly every observer out there sent
in a report of a human triggered slide. The
soft slabs, reactive to slope cuts and cornice drops, commonly measured 12-14” deep
and 75-100’ wide, some running up to 800’.
Most had an easterly component, but crossloading and channeling upped
the ante for other exposures as well. Tour in Ogden Mountains. Tour in upper Mill
Creek.
Some of yesterday’s wind
drifts will still be sensitive while the continued moderate to strong westerly winds
until midnight will guarantee some new booby traps up high. Continue to play it safe with cornices for
slope testing, use dialed-in slope cut techniques, and jump on multiple test
slopes. Dig down with your hand to see
how well (or not) things have bonded overnight.
It won’t be as active as yesterday, but I’d be surprised to not have any
reports for tomorrow.
Bottom Line:
The avalanche danger is MODERATE on mid and
upper elevation slopes steeper than 35 degrees, especially with recent drifts
of wind blown snow. Non wind affected
slopes have a mostly LOW danger.
The danger of wet activity on the sunny aspects will rise to MODERATE with daytime heating.
Mountain Weather:
Brief ridging will give us
a break in the storm cycle today and tomorrow and we’ll see partly cloudy skies
and light west to southwest winds. Temps
will rise to the mid 30’s at 8000’ and the mid twenties at 10,000’. An increasing southwesterly flow will precede
the next impressive looking storm, set for late Tuesday into Thursday. The longer range models suggest another storm
over the weekend with yet another on tap early next 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 didn’t get out yesterday. They’ll have one ship in AF with a home run
in White Pine and another in the Sessions and Lambs areas. 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.
I will update this advisory by
7:30 Monday morning. Thanks for calling.