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
Wednesday,
December 12, 2007 7:30 am
Good morning, this is
UDOT will be sighting
in their weapon in
There will be a benefit for our partners, the
Friends of the
Alta Community Enrichment will be
sponsoring a free women's avalanche beacon clinic tomorrow, December 13th, from
9 am until around noon. Meet inside the Albion Grill at Alta's Ski Lift's
upper lot at 9am. Skies, snowshoes or just boots OK. Extra beacons available. For more
information call 742-9712 OR EMAIL [email protected].
Current Conditions:
Bundle up
for another chilly morning; mountain temperatures are once again in the 5 to 10
degree range, except for the drainage bottoms, where they’ve dropped even lower
into the negative single digits. The
winds have shifted to the northwest, and are very light this morning, in the 5
to 10 mph range, with a few gusts to 20mph. Skies are currently clear, but will gradually
cloud up later today.
Excellent
turning and riding conditions continue, with care needed at the mid and lower
elevations where the pack is still thin and rocks are still being hit. There is a bit of wind damage along the highest
ridges, and some crusting on the steep, sunny slopes.
Avalanche Discussion:
Yesterday, there was
one skier triggered slide reported in Wilson Glade, on a steep, northerly
facing slope at approximately 9,800'. It
was about 50' wide and two feet deep, ran 500' vertical feet, and failed on
facets. Resort explosive control work
also triggered a slide into old snow, 3 feet deep by 150’ wide, on an upper
elevation, northwesterly facing slope.
So there is no change
to the current pattern of instability – the weak facet layer of snow can still
be triggered by people, and most people are just plain staying off the steep, northerly
facing, upper elevation slopes, because there are still dangerous avalanches
waiting to be set off. The weak faceted
layer is most widespread in the Cottonwoods and
Also, a few wind slabs
did develop along the ridgelines yesterday, which were hard and hollow sounding
and cracking underfoot. These wind
drifts should be avoided on steep slopes, and are most widespread along the
higher ridgelines, above about 10,000’.
Bottom Line:
The
avalanche danger is MODERATE on upper
elevation northwest, north and northeasterly facing slopes steeper than about
35 degrees, above about 9,000’ in the
Throughout
all the range, there is also a MODERATE avalanche
danger on any steep slope with hard drifts of wind blown snow, which are most
widespread along the upper elevation ridgelines.
Mountain Weather:
High pressure over the
area will bring mostly clear skies and light winds to the mountains. Temperatures will warm into the mid 20’s at
8,000’ and the midteens at 10,000’. The
northwesterly winds will be light, generally less than 15 mph, with gusts less
than 25 mph. Clouds will start to
increase later today ahead of a weak disturbance that should bring a few inches
of snow Thursday night through early Friday.
Another weak disturbance will follow for the weekend.
(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.
Bruce Tremper will update this advisory
by 7:30 Thursday morning.