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,
December 10, 2007 7:30 am
Good morning, this is Drew Hardesty with
the
ACE will
be sponsoring a free women's beacon clinic this Thursday, December 13th, from 9
am until around noon. Meet inside the Albion Grill at Alta's Ski Lift's
upper lot. Skies, snowshoes or just boots OK.
Extra beacons will be available.
Alta Community
Enrichment will be holding a three day local’s avalanche clinic DECEMBER 12,
13, and 15. For more information call 742-9712
OR EMAIL [email protected].
Current Conditions:
Skies are
clear and temperatures have plummeted to the single digits at most locations. The southwesterly winds are generally light, although
they spiked a bit into the 20mph range for a few hours early this morning. Trail-breaking is somewhat improved as skiing
and riding conditions are as good as they’ve been all year. Some sun-breaks and green-housing yesterday produced
a zipper crust on many of the sunny and mid-elevation slopes and coverage now
sits at 3-4’, which is about the depth of some of the avalanches we’re seeing.
Avalanche Discussion:
Four more large
avalanches ripped out in the backcountry yesterday with one very close call
just on the north side of
Folks are finding
excellent, safe riding conditions out there, but they’re intentionally avoiding
the steep northerly slopes. Turn the
compass to the west or east, and you have a different ballgame, with only new
snow instabilities or shallow drifting to worry about. These are what I like to call ‘manageable’
problems. They respond well to ski cuts,
cornice drops, and tend to break at your feet.
The slides breaking to the ground are unmanageable. They are too big, too wide, and too dangerous
to play with. And they’re not going away
anytime soon. I suspect that we’ll hear
of avalanches into old snow throughout the week.
Bottom Line:
Salt Lake, Park City, and Provo area
mountains: Pockets of CONSIDERABLE danger remain on northwest, north, and
northeast facing slopes above about 9000’.
The danger may be more pronounced and widespread in the upper reaches of
the Cottonwoods and the
Mountain Weather:
A weak storm from the
north will spell cooling temperatures and increasing cloud cover throughout the
day. We’ll perhaps see an inch or two in
the mountains. Winds should remain light
from the west. We’ll remain in an
unsettled northwesterly flow with a few minor disturbances. Models suggest another decent storm for the
weekend.
Announcements:
For an avalanche education class list, click HERE.
If you want to get this avalanche advisory e-mailed to you daily click HERE.
The UAC has temporary job openings for doing avalanche outreach in more rural
areas. Click HERE for info.
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 our classic text
advisory click HERE.
If you’re getting out and see anything we should know about please let us
know. You can leave 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 Tuesday morning.