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
Monday,
January 29, 2007 7:30 am
Good morning, this is Drew Hardesty with
the
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 3rd
and 4th, and a showing of a Teton Ski Documentary film on Feb 8th
at Brewvies. Details are below, or click here for more
information.
Current Conditions:
31” for January. Less than 3’ of snow came this month, a month
that averages nearly 100”. The ‘100” in
a hundred hours storm’ from November of 2001, the 125” before November two
years ago, all the storms, all the powder…… seems like a distant memory.
Skies above the soup are
clear with mountain temperatures in the teens and low twenties. The westerly winds picked up overnight along
the highest ridgelines blowing 20-25mph, and they should calm down by about
midday. One observer described the backcountry
as “depth hoar to the ground, surface hoar glinting like diamonds,
breakable crust, corn, rocks, bushes, and some petrified turns left by the
milkman. Oh yeah, and some decent recrystallized snow on top of a crust.” Nicely done.
Snowpack and Avalanche Conditions:
Sluffing in the weak
surface snow on the steep shady aspects remains the only game in town. Some of the weakest snow is at the mid and
low elevations from the inversion, so avoid flushing the salt on top of each other
or rolling into a terrain trap. Those on
the afternoon program or dusk patrol should consider the potential for
triggering some wet loose snow on the steeper sunny aspects.
Bottom Line for the
Today, the avalanche
danger is generally LOW, with some 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 with temps in the mid-30’s at 8000’ and in the low twenties at
10,000’. The westerly winds should veer
northwesterly and back to 15mph along the ridgelines. Clouds will increase tomorrow from a system
passing by to the south with a colder arctic system slated for Thursday. Should be enough wind and
cold air to mix things out by then.
Maybe even an inch or two.
Announcements:
Yesterday, the Wasatch Powderbird Guides were along
the Cascade ridgeline. Today, they’ll return
south there and in AF, with another ship in the Bountiful Sessions. 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 3rd and
4th. For more information and
to register, call 435-615-3325. And
finally, at 7:30 on February 8th, 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.
Brett Kobernik will update this advisory by 7:30 on Tuesday morning, and
thanks for calling.