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,
February 05, 2007 7:30 am
Good morning, this is Drew Hardesty with
the
We’ve been
experiencing difficulties recording our telephone lines during times of high
volumes of callers trying to reach the hotline.
Please wait until 7:15am or so to call.
Early birds may want to call our 6am recording at 1-888-999-4019 option
8. Thanks.
Current Conditions:
A disturbance passing by
to the northeast yesterday provided drizzly conditions in the northern and
central Wasatch with perhaps an inch of heavy snow up high. The good news is the skies are clear and,
more importantly, the northwesterly winds lost their steam and are now less
than 15mph at most locations. Mountain
temperatures are at 24 hour highs this morning, in the mid to upper twenties
above 8000’ enroute daytime highs of the upper 30’s at 10,000’ and mid 40’s at
8000’.
Snowpack and Avalanche Conditions:
We received continued
reports of cracking, collapsing, and human triggered avalanches in the
backcountry. One skier over near
Reynolds Peak in mid-BCC had a cornice break behind him and fell onto the slope
below, triggering a 10-16” deep and 40’ wide soft slab into the aspens (photo). Two others survived a close call in the
Cinder Chutes, steep northeast facing terrain at about 9400’ in an out of
bounds area adjacent to the Canyons Mountain Resort. The first skier remotely triggered part of
the area, having a smaller persistent slab break out 100’ above him. The next skier, on his descent, also remotely
triggered a slide 25’ above him 12-18” deep which then stepped down to near the
ground on weak sugary faceted snow. It broke
out 3-4’ deep and up to 150’ wide, running 700’ down the slope. He was fortunately able to grab a tree and
let the snow rush by.
Another report of an incident
trickled in from Saturday where a skier was caught and carried down a steep
chute above
The strong winds
certainly rang the bell of our sorry snowpack, and things may take a while to
heal. At least the warming temperatures
will add another spice to the kettle in the way of wet avalanche activity on
the steep sun exposed slopes. On the
other side of the compass, stick to the lower angled slopes and remain alert to
collapsing in the snowpack. Cornices
will remain sensitive with the heat as well.
Remotely triggered slides will be more common on mid and upper elevation
northwest through east facing aspects, but hard slabs can be found at many
elevations, though primarily on north through south facing aspects. As the snowpack is weaker outside of the
Cottonwoods, any slide triggered may step to near the ground, as evidenced by
yesterday’s close call. Rapid warming
like what we expect today may accentuate the ‘trigger-ability’ of the hard
persistent slabs – take caution.
Bottom Line for the
Today, the avalanche
danger is MODERATE on any slope steeper than about 35
degrees with recent drifts of wind blown snow.
Hard slabs and remotely triggered slides are devious, and consequences
may be severe. The danger of wet
activity may rise to CONSIDERABLE with daytime heating. Avoid mid and late afternoon exits on the steep
sunny slopes.
Mountain Weather:
The bluebird will sing
today with light winds and temps warming to the mid-40’s
at 8000’. The ridge will persist through
tomorrow before a series of increasingly moist westerly storms affect the area
into and through the weekend.
Announcements:
Yesterday, the Wasatch Powderbird Guides did not fly, but today they’ll be
in AF and White Pine, and the Cascade Ridgeline. With questions regarding their
areas of operation call 742-2800.
On February 8th at 7:30, there will be a Teton Skiing
documentary at Brewvies.
Listen to the
advisory. Try our new streaming audio or
podcasts
UDOT highway avalanche
control work info can be found HERE
or by calling (801)
975-4838.
Our statewide tollfree line is 1-888-999-4019 (early morning, 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.