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Parks and Recreation, The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center, Utah Department
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AVALANCHE ADVISORY
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Thursday,
November 16, 2006 7:30 am
Good morning, this is Bruce Tremper with
the
Alta and Snowbird resorts will be closed to
uphill traffic today due to avalanche control work.
I will give a free avalanche awareness talk
tonight at Kirkhams at 7:00 pm. Kirkhams is located
at
Current Conditions:
Today is probably a
good day to catch up on your indoor work.
It will be gloomy weather in the mountains today with clouds, warm
temperatures and the possibility of rain to quite high elevations this morning
before the rain-snow line lowers to around 8,000’ later in the day. On the highest peaks, the temperature has
risen to freezing and the winds are 30 mph from the west-southwest. Yesterday, there was some nice, creamy powder
on the sun sheltered slopes but the south facing slopes started to get damp
with some rollerballs in the afternoon sun.
Snowpack and Avalanche Conditions:
Yesterday, Brett
Kobernik and I went up to look at the skier-triggered avalanche in Silver Fork
on Tuesday and Brett posted an excellent
report with photos. Wow, it was an
impressive slide breaking 2-3 feet deep and over a quarter mile wide. Thanks to a textbook-perfect rescue by the
party, everyone is alive and well.
Although the snowpack has settled down dramatically from the widespread
avalanche activity on Tuesday, yesterday a backcountry skier triggered a slab 3’
deep and 100’ wide on the northeast face of Little Superior Buttress but they
were able to ski off it. Several other
people reported collapsing and cracking snow.
All the avalanches have been fracturing on a layer of very tender, sugary,
faceted crystals near the ground and making avalanches 2-3 feet deep and
sometimes very wide. Faceted snow is one
of the so-called “persistent” weak layers because it continues to produce
avalanches sometimes several days after it has been loaded with the weight of
new snow or wind blown snow. Click
here for a web photo gallery. In other words, today you will continue to
find a few booby traps that backcountry riders could trigger. All the cagy avalanche folks I know are
continuing to be very suspicious of northerly-facing slopes steeper than about
35 degrees. (For detailed avalanche activity information call
888-999-4019 and pick option 8.)
Bottom Line:
The avalanche danger
is what I might call a scary MODERATE on northwest,
north, northeast and east facing slopes
above about 9,000’, steeper than about 35 degrees. The avalanches may be stubborn to trigger but
if you do trigger one, it will most likely be large and dangerous. On southerly-facing slopes that had no
preexisting snow prior to last weekend’s storm, the avalanche danger is LOW. There is also a MODERATE danger of wet avalanche activity at lower
elevations today if we get significant rain.
Mountain Weather:
We’ll have poopy weather in the mountains today with a warm, shallow
cloud layer streaming in from the west.
This will bring light precipitation, with the rain-snow line up around
10,000’ this morning and lowering to around 8,000’ by afternoon. We may get a couple inches of wet snow by
tonight. It looks like similar weather
on Friday.
The extended forecast calls for warming temperatures over the weekend and then
the possibility of a storm around Thanksgiving.
If there is anything
we should know about, continue to let us know by calling (801) 524-5304 or
1-800-662-4140, email [email protected]
or fax 801-524-6301
Finally, remember that
this avalanche bulletin describes general conditions and that local variations
always occur. Be sure to take a
reputable avalanche class and learn to judge local conditions as you travel.