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
“keeping
you on top”
AVALANCHE ADVISORY
Tuesday,
January 02, 2007 7:30 am
Good morning, this is Brett Kobernik with
the
Current Conditions:
The weather produced
pleasant conditions in the mountains over the last few days with mild
temperatures and light winds. Currently
under partly cloudy skies, ridgetop temperatures are around 20 degrees and north
northeast winds are generally less then 10 mph.
Snowpack and Avalanche Conditions:
There’s nothing
significant to report from the backcountry on Monday. Faceting continues to weaken the snow surface
and is breaking down a few of the thinner wind crusts. People are still getting decent shears around
the buried rime crust which we will want to pay attention to for a while still. This stuff presents no problem right now but
has the potential as a weakness with a larger load of snow.
For today you will
want to watch for lingering pockets that may release under the weight of a
person. These will mainly be above about
8500 to 9000 feet on west through north through east facing slopes. Watch any slope that has stiff wind affected
snow in these areas. Continue to
practice safe route finding techniques such as putting only one person on a
slope at a time and clearing the avalanche run out zones. If you don’t follow these procedures during
periods of LOW danger, you may have the tendency to cut corners just from habit
when the danger is higher.
Bottom Line for the
Most terrain across
the Wasatch has a LOW danger
today. Very isolated pockets of MODERATE danger remain at mid and upper elevation west
through north through east facing aspects with wind affected snow.
Mountain Weather:
Some moisture is spilling over
the high pressure ridge which will produce partly cloudy skies with increasing
clouds today. Ridgetop temperatures will
be mild and in the upper 20s to mid 30s.
Ridgetop winds will be from the northwest in the 5 to 15 mph range. Partly cloudy conditions will persist Wednesday
and Thursday with mild temperatures.
Winds will increase somewhat the next few days then we’ll have a chance
for snow Thursday afternoon into Friday with much colder temperatures.
Announcements: Yesterday, the Wasatch Powderbird Guides flew in American
Fork and Cascade. Today they’ll be in
Mineral,
Listen to the
advisory. Try our new streaming audio or
podcasts
Our new,
state wide tollfree hotline is 1-888-999-4019.
(For early morning detailed avalanche activity report hit option 8)
For a list of avalanche
classes, click HERE
For our classic text advisory click HERE.
To sign up for automated e-mails of our graphical advisory click HERE
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.
Evelyn Lees will update this advisory by 7:30 on Wednesday morning, and
thanks for calling.