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
Tuesday,
December 11, 2007 7:30 am
Good morning, this is
There will be a benefit for the Friends of the
Alta Community
Enrichment will be sponsoring a free women's avalanche 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.
For more information
call 742-9712 OR EMAIL [email protected].
Current Conditions:
Under
mostly clear skies this morning, mountain temperatures dipped into the single
digits and winds picked up into the 15 to 25 mph range from the northeast with
the higher elevations around Ogden showing the strongest winds in the 30 to 40
mph range gusting into the 50s. Soft
powder remained on the surface Monday with wind crusts forming on some aspects
at the upper elevations. These wind
affected areas will probably be more widespread today with the shift in wind
direction.
Avalanche Discussion:
No avalanches breaking
into old snow were reported from the backcountry on Monday. Can
you still trigger one? Most experienced
people say “oh yeah” and might even point you to an area where they know you could get a slide to
release. Some collapsing into the older
snow was reported from Monday. Also,
there were reports of some sluffing of the newest snow on steeper aspects as
well as some shallow wind slabs that released naturally in the
For today you will
still want to avoid the steeper northerly aspects as the snow structure is
still suspect. Weaker faceted snow under
the last couple of snow storms still has the potential to collapse and release
an avalanche.
With the switch in
wind direction, wind affected areas will be more widespread today at the upper
elevations. Watch for cracking which is
an indicator of freshly formed drifts.
My guess is that you’ll probably be able to find these shallow wind
slabs and crusts on many upper elevation aspects today. These probably won’t pose a great threat but
you should be aware that they’re around.
Bottom Line:
The
avalanche danger is MODERATE on upper
elevation northerly facing steeper slopes.
I cannot stress enough that the consequences are quite severe if you do
trigger an avalanche in this terrain. Human
triggered avalanches are possible on the upper elevation northerly facing
steeper slopes in the
Mountain Weather:
Today we’ll see more
clearing as the day progresses.
Temperatures will remain fairly cold with highs in the teens along the
upper ridges. Northeasterly winds will
continue but will slow as the day goes on.
It looks like we’ll see a minor weather disturbance late Wednesday with
a better looking system Thursday night into Friday which could produce snow.
(Click HERE where you
can get another look at the weather on our revamped weather page. This page is updated everyday by around
noon.)
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.