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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Wednesday, December 06, 2006 7:30 am
Good morning, this is Evelyn Lees with the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center with your backcountry avalanche and mountain weather advisory. Today is Wednesday, December 06, 2006 and it’s 7:30 in the morning.

UDOT plans to fire artillery in Little Cottonwood Canyon tomorrow morning, Thursday, Dec 7^th. Please stay clear of all south facing paths between Maybird and Cardiff, including all of Superior. For more information and any updates, call 801-975-4838 or go to www.udot.utah.gov/avalanche.

Current Conditions:

Under mostly clear skies, temperatures are in the upper teens to near 30 this morning. Winds have continued to blow from the northwest, around 15 mph with gusts into the 30’s at most stations. Across the highest peaks, hourly averages have been in the 30 to 45 mph range, with gusts in the 50’s and 60’s. Riding conditions in loud powder on the shady slopes continue to be good in the deeper snowpack areas, but the shallower snowpack is becoming more and more unsupportable. Sunny slopes have crusts, which will soften today.

Snowpack and Avalanche Conditions:

The snowpack is mostly stable, and there are only a few isolated places where a person could trigger a slide. A wind event last Friday created isolated, shallow, hard wind slabs that can still be triggered. Two were purposely triggered in the Provo area mountains yesterday, the largest 30’ wide, and 3-6” deep. Yesterday's winds also moved snow, but didn't seem to form much in the way of drifts, though some sluffing was reported. Last night’s stronger winds may have created a few new sensitive drifts along the higher ridgelines that should be avoided. The entire snowpack continues to weaken from top to bottom, especially on the most northerly facing slopes and in shallower snowpack areas. Loose snow sluffs in the weak surface snow are becoming larger. (Click here for a current Snow Diagram)

Bottom Line:

The avalanche danger is mostly LOW today. There do exist a few, isolated shallow wind drifts that a person could trigger on steep slopes at the higher elevations. These steep, wind drifted slopes have a MODERATE avalanche danger.

Mountain Weather:

High pressure will generate a couple more sunny, warm days in the mountains. Today, temperatures will warm to near 40 at 8,000’ and into the mid 20’s at 10,000’. The northwesterly winds will gradually decrease into the 10 to 20 mph range at most locations. Friday, a southwesterly flow will develop ahead of series of weak weather systems that will cross the Great Basin this weekend.

Announcements:

Our partners, the FUAC, will hold their next fundraiser at Brewvies tomorrow night, Dec 7^th. There will be two showings of TGR’s new film, “The Anomaly”, at 7pm and 9pm. Advance tickets are available at feedthehabit.com.

We appreciate any snowpack and avalanche observations you have, so please leave us a message at (801) 524-5304 or 1-800-662-4140, or email us at [email protected]. (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.

Bruce Tremper will update this advisory by 7:30 on Thursday morning and thanks for calling.