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AVALANCHE ADVISORY
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Monday,
November 20, 2006 7:30 am
Good morning, this is Drew Hardesty with
the
Current Conditions:
With a stagnant
atmosphere, mountain temperatures remain inverted with overnight lows in the
mid-to upper 30’s above 9500’. On the
backside of the ridge of high pressure, winds are out of the south and
southwest averaging 15-25mph with some local gusts into the 40’s. Riding conditions are ok on the upper
elevation shady slopes while the sunny and off-aspects build into the first
corn cycle of the year.
Snowpack and Avalanche Conditions:
While control work in
upper Little Cottonwood still produced avalanches to the ground, no new activity
or spooky reports came in from the backcountry.
Bruce went up to investigate
the three remotely triggered slides from Saturday, and Bob Athey went to look
at the snow along the
In the mean time, be
mindful of a few avalanche issues for today.
First, avoid the areas with
weak basal snow and lingering deep slab potential on the northwest through east
facing aspects above about 9000’. These
slides will likely step to the ground and will be difficult to survive. Slope cuts are rarely predictable or safe
with this snow structure. And it may
still be possible to trigger the avalanche from a distance, even from the
flats. Second, look for a few shallow new wind drifts from the gustier
southwesterly winds over the next couple of days as the new drifts will be
sitting on the weak surface snow. They’ll
be found at the highest elevations on the lee of steep northwest through east
facing slopes as well. Third, with a poor
refreeze of the snow surface on the sunnier aspects, watch for an increase in
wet activity with daytime heating.
Bottom Line:
The avalanche danger
remains MODERATE on northwest, north, northeast, and
east facing slopes above about 9,000’ and
steeper than about 35 degrees. Anticipate
and avoid any new wind drifting on the same aspects over the next couple days. Finally, the danger of wet activity on the
sun exposed slopes will rise to MODERATE with daytime
heating.
Mountain Weather:
We’ll see increasing
clouds and southwesterly winds over the next couple of days ahead of a
Thanksgiving day cold front. 8000’ temps will skyrocket to the mid-50’s
with 10k temps pushing into the mid-40’s. Winds will be 25-35 in the most exposed
locations. Looks like we may be in for a
regime change in the weather, optimistically forecasting a storm Thursday, late
Saturday, and perhaps again late Tuesday.
Announcements:
The next FUAC fundraiser will be at Brewvies. “The Anomaly” by TGR
is playing on Dec 7th, with two showings, at 7pm and 9pm. Advance tickets are available.
We appreciate any
snowpack and avalanche observations, so please let us know by calling (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 will update this
advisory by 7:30 on Tuesday and thanks for calling.