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.

“keeping you on top”

AVALANCHE ADVISORY

Sunday, January 28, 2007 7:30 am
Good morning, this is Drew Hardesty with the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center with your backcountry avalanche and mountain weather advisory. Today is Sunday, January 28, 2007 and it’s 7:30 in the morning.

Our partners, the Friends of the UAC, are hosting numerous events during the 4th Annual Backcountry Awareness Week. There will be a dinner February 2nd at The Canyons with Olympic Gold Medal Winner Jim Shea, avalanche classes at the Canyons on February 3^rd and 4^th, and a showing of a Teton Ski Documentary film on Feb 8^th at Brewvies. Details are below, or click here for more information.

Current Conditions:

Skies are clear with mountain temperatures in the teens this morning. The winds are westerly and less than 15mph.

Snowpack and Avalanche Conditions:

It took about 30 seconds to wade through all the observations this morning, so I’ll pass on the good karma. Sluffing in the weak surface snow will still be the only factor for today. As the inversion has accentuated the faceting in the shady mid and low elevations, be mindful of the loose snow on those steep tricky exits. Sluffing in the wet snow may also be possible on the steep sun-exposed slopes for those exiting the sunny sides in the mid to late afternoon.

Bottom Line for the Salt Lake, Park City, Provo and Ogden area mountains:

Today, the avalanche danger is generally LOW, but there are isolated pockets of MODERATE danger on steep, shady slopes due to easily triggered sluffs in the loose, faceted snow.

Mountain Weather:

We’ll have clear skies aloft, light westerly winds and temps reaching near 30 at 8000’ and in the low twenties at 10,000’. We may pick up an inch or two out of a weak system diving down from the north on Tuesday, with another unimpressive shot for the weekend.

Announcements:

Yesterday, the Wasatch Powderbird Guides were in AF, Mill Creek, Cardiff, and Days. Today, they’ll be in Cascade, the Sessions, and American Fork. They welcome any more specific questions regarding their areas of operation you can contact them at 742-2800.

There will be a Fundraising Dinner on Friday, February 2, 2007. The dinner will be at The Canyons and Olympic Gold Medal Winner Jim Shea will be the keynote speaker. For tickets and information visit www.UtahAvalancheCenter.com Also, the Canyons will be offering avalanche classes on Saturday and Sunday, February 3^rd and 4^th. For more information and to register, call 435-615-3325. And finally, at 7:30 on February 8^th, there will be a Teton Skiing documentary at Brewvies as a fundraiser for the Friends of the UAC.

Listen to the advisory. Try our new streaming audio or podcasts

UDOT highway avalanche control work information can be found HERE or by calling (801) 975-4838.

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.

I will update this advisory by 7:30 on Monday morning, and thanks for calling.