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
Thursday,
February 08, 2007 7:30 am
Good morning, this is Bruce Tremper with
the
Our partners, the Friends of the
Also tonight,
Brett Kobernik will be giving a FREE avalanche awareness talk at the Sandy REI,
at 7 pm and there is a FREE Avalanche Rescue and Beacon Use talk at the
Huntsville Library at 7 pm. There will
also be a FREE Beacon clinic Saturday at the
We’re
unveiling the new look to our avalanche advisory today thanks to the design
work by
Current Conditions:
The past three days,
we’ve had t-shirt and ball cap weather with ridge top temperatures with highs
40-45 degrees with 8,000’ temperatures in the 50’s. This morning it has cooled down into the mid
20’s. A weak impulse overnight left us
with a mighty trace of new snow and ridge top winds have picked up and are
blowing 20-30 from the west and southwest.
Snow surface conditions are character-building variety of sun and wind
crusts, manky, refrozen glop and a few scraps of
soft, recrystallzed snow on sun and wind sheltered
slopes. Yup, another good office
day. But at least the smog has cleared
out in the valleys.
Snowpack and Avalanche Conditions:
Yesterday a huge,
hard-slab avalanche released naturally along the Park City Ridgeline in Radar
Love Bowl, which is near Scott’s Peak, the one with all the radar towers. It was 2-3 feet deep and broke up to 8 feet
deep on one edge. It was nearly 200
yards wide on a 35 degree, east facing slope just under 10,000’. It was rock-hard, wind blown snow that slid on
a thin layer of faceted snow and surface hoar sandwiched between hard, wind
slabs. PHOTOS and VIDEO. This is the kind of avalanche that gives
avalanche folks grey hair (or no hair in my case). It’s been 3 days since that slope was loaded
with wind drifted snow. The only recent
disturbance was the very warm temperatures yesterday and the day before, which
in theory accelerates the creep rate of the slab. Regardless of any of our puny theories, one
thing is for sure; if there’s one, there are likely others. It’s just like the old horror movie trick;
just when you are starting to relax, the monster jumps out of the closet. Welcome
to a “
But other than some isolated, impossible-to-survive, hard-slabs lurking about,
everyone is reporting generally stable snow.
Does that make you feel any more confident?
Most of the wet sluffs from the past two days will probably calm down today
with cooler temperatures and clouds, but the snow is still soggy under the
surface crusts, so continue to be cautious on steep slopes.
Bottom Line for the
Although it’s
impossible to describe conditions like this with danger ratings, I would say it’s
mostly MODERATE avalanche danger on most slopes
steeper than about 35 degrees with pockets of CONSIDERABLE or higher danger on
slopes with deposits of wind drifted snow, especially in thin snowpack areas.
Mountain Weather:
We have another weak
disturbance for later today that may give us another inch of snow if we’re
lucky. The rain-snow line will be around
7,000’. Otherwise mostly variable clouds
with ridge top winds around 20 mph with gusts to 40 from the west and southwest. Ridge top temperatures will remain in the mid
20’s and skies will be mostly cloudy all day.
For Friday, we have a
weak disturbance on a southwest to south flow that will likely give us a couple
inches of snow. We will likely have a quick clearing on
Saturday, then we have another similar trough passing on Sunday and Monday,
which may give us a few more inches.
Announcements:
Yesterday, the Wasatch Powderbird Guides did not fly, and they probably won’t
fly again today. With questions
regarding their areas of operation call 742-2800.
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 Friday morning, and
thanks for calling.