Wasatch Cache National Forest
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 Salt Lake County.

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AVALANCHE ADVISORY

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Friday, November 24, 2006  7:30 am
Good morning, this is Brett Kobernik with the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center.  Today is Friday, November 24, 2006 and it’s 7:30 in the morning. 

 

Current Conditions:

Temperatures cooled off significantly yesterday and are now in the mid to upper teens at most locations.  Average ridgetop wind speeds are 5 to 10 mph with gusts to near 30 at the most exposed locations.  Surface conditions range from a brain rattling melt freeze crust at lower elevations to wind effected snow at the higher locations.  Dense settled powder can still be found in the 9000 to 9500 foot range on northerly facing slopes.  For the most part the thin snowpack is supportable which makes traveling quite easy.

 

Snowpack and Avalanche Conditions:

The fast moving cold front that came through on Thursday laid down a whopping trace to a ½ inch of snow. 

 

Winds on Thursday were strong enough to produce some plumes off of the highest peaks.  This might have formed a few drifts that could be sensitive to the weight of a person.  These drifts will be fairly shallow and not pose too much threat.  You might find these on upper elevation north through east facing slopes.

 

Stability tests still show weakness in the sugary snow near the ground.  (MORE)  While it’s pretty difficult to find a slope that may avalanche there were still a few slopes that I avoided on Thursday.  It may take another load of snow for this weakness to become active again.  Nonetheless, we can’t forget about this problem just yet.  Click HERE to check out a new experimental stability test.

 

Bottom Line:

Most slopes have a LOW avalanche danger today.  However, there are pockets with a MODERATE danger on slopes that face the north half of the compass above about 9500 feet that are steeper than 35 degrees.  There is also a MODERATE danger on steep slopes with recent deposits of wind drifted snow.

 

Mountain Weather:

Today we’ll have mostly clear skies with ridgetop temperatures in the mid to upper 20s.  Southwest winds will be in the 5 to 10 mph range with gusts near 30 at the most exposed locations.  For the weekend we’ll see partly cloudy skies with ridgetop temperatures in the mid 20s.  A potentially significant snow storm is shaping up for Monday night through Wednesday with plenty of cold air and a decent amount of moisture.

 

Announcements:

Our partners, the FUAC, will hold their next fundraiser at Brewvies on Dec 7th. There will be two showings of TGR’s new film, “The Anomaly”, 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.

 

Evelyn Lees will update this advisory by 7:30 on Friday morning and thanks for calling.