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,
March 12, 2007 7:30 am
Good morning, this is Drew Hardesty with
the
Current Conditions:
Overnight lows were in
the mid-to-low 30’s, but the radiational cooling will have provided at least a
superficial refreeze. Highs today will
burst the 50 degree bubble at 8000’, so the window for the sunny slopes will be
tight this morning. Winds remain generally light and
northwesterly. High north remains dry
with everything else crusted. Skin wax and
a sun bonnet are required.
Snow and Avalanche Discussion:
One party triggered a
couple soft
slabs in upper elevation southeast facing terrain along the Alta perimeter
yesterday. Each was reported to be up to
two feet deep and 200’ wide, though no one was caught. There was also a report of another natural
slab avalanche high in the
With overnight lows a
full 10-15 degrees warmer than yesterday, it’ll still be possible to pop out a
remnant wind drift in steep easterly terrain.
Slow warming tends to increase bonding and sintering in the snow, but
rapid warming tends to offset this through increased shear stress between the
bonds. Persistent slabs up to 3-4’ deep
may still be triggered in isolated steep, relatively shallow, rocky terrain on
west through north through easterly facing aspects.
As daytime highs march
toward the mid 40’s at 10,000’ and upper 50’s at 8000’, wet activity will
become the rule and not the exception. Plan
accordingly so you don’t find yourself in steep sun-exposed, unsupportable glop
in the middle of the day. Shallow wet
slabs up to 10" will easily be triggered from other wet sluffs or human
activity.
Bottom Line for the
The danger of wet
sluff and slab avalanches will rise to CONSIDERABLE today with daytime warming on the
sun-exposed slopes. The danger of triggering a remnant soft slab or
deeper slab remains MODERATE, although
the consequences for the two are miles apart. Remotely triggered slides
remain possible.
Mountain Weather:
We’ll have sunny
skies, light westerly winds, and soaring temperatures. A weak cold front pushes through Wednesday to
scale back temps a bit, then we’re back in the spring cycle. No storms as far as the eye can see.
Announcements:
Yesterday, the Wasatch Powderbird Guides flew in
American Fork and the Cascade Ridgeline.
Today, they’ll return with a home run in White Pine. For more info, call 742-2800.
The UAC and ACE are offering a day long Women’s Avalanche
Awareness class at Alta on March 22nd covering beacon use and basic
safe travel, terrain and snowpack information, for a nominal fee. For more details go to: www.altaarts.org.
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 all the great
snowpack and avalanche observations we’ve been getting, so keep leaving us
messages 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.