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 09, 2006 7:30 am
Good morning, this is Drew Hardesty with
the
Current Conditions:
With clear skies, overnight
lows dipped into the upper twenties and low thirties. The winds are averaging 20-25mph from the
southwest. It’s quite the mixed bag of
snow conditions out there, and if you don’t like what you see, wait a few
hours. Upper elevation northerly slopes
still have some soft carve-able wind whales, while many of the off aspects will
have supportable quasi-corn for a few hours.
Recent Avalanche Activity & Snowpack Discussion:
Only heard about one
distracted skier taking a quick
ride on an upper elevation southeast facing run in the mid-afternoon – and that
was me. Others descending steep lower
elevation northerly slopes late in the day found thrill and excitement as they
pulled lots of snow out with every turn.
Today’s problems will be much the same.
The stronger winds just don’t
have that much snow to blow around and most agree that the storm snow has been
welded in quite nicely. Regardless, if
you’re in the highest terrain, watch for a rogue drift leftover from Thursday
and throw in appropriate travel protocol.
The wet activity will again
be problematic on the sunny aspects of all elevations and the mid and low
elevations on the shady aspects. Once you
can initiate movement in the wet snow or see natural pinwheels and roller-balls,
it’ll be time to seek another aspect or low angled terrain. Avoid being on or underneath steep slopes,
particularly areas with a gulley or other terrain trap at the bottom.
Bottom Line:
The avalanche danger for wet sluffs and slabs today will rise to MODERATE today with daytime warming. Natural and human triggered avalanches will
be probable. The
Mountain Weather:
8000’ highs will reach into
the mid-50’s today with 10,000’ temps heading to 34
degrees. The southwest winds will blow
20mph along the more exposed ridgelines.
A weak cold front is expected to move through tomorrow afternoon
bringing a few inches of snow. A ridge
builds back in for late week with the next Low Pressure system forecast to move
through over the weekend.
Announcements:
The second annual “Beacon and Eggs” contests are
in full swing, with BIG prizes to the winners.
Contests were held yesterday at Solitude with more competition next
Saturday at Snowbird. For more information, go to http://www.snowbird.com/events/events/beaconandeggs.html
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 did not get out yesterday. Today they will fly in American Fork, with a
home run out White Pine. For more info,
call 742-2800.
Special announcement:
The
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.