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Parks and Recreation, The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center, Utah Department
of Emergency Services and Homeland Security and
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AVALANCHE ADVISORY
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Saturday,
November 25, 2006 7:30 am
Good morning, this is Evelyn Lees with
the
Current Conditions:
It is another
beautiful morning in the mountains, with clear skies, temperatures in the teens
and low 20’s, and light, southwesterly winds.
The current shallow snowpack and snow surface conditions aren’t exactly
anything to write home about, but the supportable snow makes travel easy. Sun crusts and hard wind slabs are very
widespread, with only a few pockets of soft, recrystalized snow on sheltered,
shady slopes off the ridgelines. The
snow on the steeper, sunny slopes warms into “imitation corn” mid day. But exits can be rough and the smooth wind
slabs are hard enough you could take a slide for life.
Snowpack and Avalanche Conditions:
Though most slopes are
stable, there are still a few isolated places where a person could trigger a
slide on the weak sugary layers near the ground. The weakest snow is on steep, shady rocky
slopes with a shallow snowpack.
With a storm in the
forecast, I’m also paying close attention to the snow surface, where any loose,
surface snow is weakening. There are
also slick, hard surface layers that will form good bed surfaces on both shady
and sunny slopes, and on some slopes the snow just below the wind and sun
crusts is also weakening. With the next
storm, I expect the first avalanche activity to be near or at our current snow
surface.
Bottom Line:
Most slopes have a LOW avalanche danger today.
However, there are isolated pockets with a MODERATE
danger on northerly facing slopes above about 9500 feet that are steeper than
35 degrees.
Mountain Weather:
It will be another
pleasant day in the mountains, with a few high thin clouds moving across the
mostly clear skies. Temperatures will
reach the upper 30’s at 8,000’ and near 20 at 10,000’. The southwesterly winds will remain light,
generally less than 15 mph, with slightly stronger speeds across the highest
peaks. A decent looking storm remains
on track for Monday into Tuesday, with much colder temperatures and significant
snow.
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.
Drew Hardesty will
update this advisory by 7:30 on Sunday morning and thanks for calling.