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
Sunday,
March 25, 2007 7:30 am
Good morning, this is Drew Hardesty with
the
Current Conditions:
It’s yet another
beautiful spring day in the Wasatch, with clear skies and light westerly
winds. Overnight lows dropped into the
upper twenties and low thirties, and it’ll be a perfect day to go for a longer
super-tour and work the aspects for corn all day long. If you don’t stray beyond 5 degrees on either
side of true north, you can milk a number of turns on recrystallized snow above
about 9000’. Today’s corn skiing and
riding may be the ticket – increasing winds and convective cloud cover may
thwart Monday’s show ahead of what looks to be a powerhouse for Tuesday and
Wednesday. Perhaps up to and over two
feet of snow for storm totals.
Snow and Avalanche Discussion:
Same as it ever
was. Play your cards right by getting
off the slopes before they become unsupportable. Be alert to softening crusts over
unsupportable glop, easily discovered by plunging a ski or probe pole into the
snow. Collapsible corn crusts may be
more prominent in shallower snowpack areas, and may even ‘whoomph’ on you. If you’re not an avalanche professional, you
may be alright – as far as I know, only avy pros, many of whom I count as good
friends, are the ones caught and/or carried by these enigmatic corn slabs.
Like most things in
life, timing is everything. Springtime
is about both spatial and temporal variability.
If you miss the window today, well, it’s back to the white room for a
few days and a whole new batch of avalanche problems. Stay tuned.
Bottom Line for the
The avalanche danger
is generally LOW this morning, and will rise to MODERATE on slopes steeper than about 35 degrees with
daytime heating. The rising danger will
follow the sun – first on easterly facing slopes, then south and then
west.
Mountain Weather:
We’ll have clear skies
and temps warming to the 50’s at 8000’ and near 40 at 10,000’. Winds will be westerly and 15-20mph. Tomorrow’s show will be headlined with
increasing southwesterly winds and convective thunderstorms, particularly up
north, with potential localized water amounts of up to a half inch of
water. Monday night winds are expected
to scream into the 50mph range before the storm moves overhead. A lot of
elements are in place for a good spring storm for mid-week, then drying out for
the weekend.
Announcements:
The Wasatch Powderbird
Guides were in Cascade and American Fork. They’ll return today. For more info, 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 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.
I will update this advisory by 7:30 on Monday morning, and thanks for
calling.