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,
December 16, 2007 7:30 am
Good morning, this is
Current Conditions:
Warm air
streaming in from the southwest has pushed mountain temperatures to their 24
hour highs this morning, with many stations jumping 10 to even 25 degrees. Skies are opening and we’ll have clear and
sunny skies along with moderate west to southwest winds along the
ridgetops. Riding conditions remain
excellent in the wind and sun sheltered areas, but the gusty winds stiffened up
the snow surfaces in much of the high exposed terrain.
Avalanche Discussion:
Even from the valley
bottoms you could see a few plumes off the highest peaks, as for a few hours
anyway, the westerly winds blew 20-30mph, gusting to near 40. The speeds were more pronounced and
consistent north of I-80, as observers to the north triggered a few drifts a
foot deep compared to about half that in the Salt Lake mountains. In any event, if you’re traveling in the more
exposed terrain, look for some rounded pillows in the upper parts of the
starting zones. I don’t expect them to
be too deep or widespread, but if you’re auditioning for the next Steep
film, you probably won’t get the job if you tomahawk down the chute through
unforgiving terrain. Some of these wind
skins likely drifted on to some rapidly weakening surface snow, and may be
touchier, or more sensitive than they otherwise would be.
What else? We didn’t hear about any avalanches into old
snow, but collapsing of the weak underlying faceted snow continues to be
reported in the mid and upper elevation sheltered aspects. With “the obvious clues” becoming
less obvious, you’ll need to do lots of poking around in the snow and performing
lots of tests if you want to play on the steep northerly slopes. But, with excellent riding conditions and
good stability on the east and west aspects, there’s little reason to push your
luck.
Bottom Line:
The
avalanche danger remains MODERATE on steep
northerly facing slopes above about 9,000’ as the snowpack remains tender in
these areas. The danger of triggering
wind drifts up to a foot deep is also MODERATE, and may be
more widespread in the Ogden and Logan area mountains.
Mountain Weather:
High pressure builds
in briefly today ahead of what appears to be a series of increasingly potent
storms through the week. Temperatures
will be in the low thirties and twenties at 8 and 10,000’; winds will be from the
west to southwest at 15-20mph. Should be a good day to get out in the mountains.
Announcements:
The Wasatch Powderbird Guides will be not be flying today.
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.
I will update this advisory by 7:30 Monday
morning.