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,
January 30, 2008 7:30 am
Good morning, this is
Special Avalanche Advisory:
A Special Avalanche
Advisory has been issued for the northern Wasatch mountains
from
There are many canyon
closures this morning, including intermittent closures in
Current Conditions:
It has been snowing
hard in the mountains overnight, with many stations in the Cottonwoods,
Snow and Avalanche Discussion:
Reports of avalanche
activity are coming in fast and furious this morning from resort snow safety and
snow cat drivers and highway workers. A
widespread new snow avalanche cycle has been occurring since 3 am, with activity
on all aspects and elevations. Avalanches
are not just limited to road banks, but debris indicates some of larger paths are
running long distances. Even the smaller
sluffs are piling snow up 5 to 6 feet deep in terrain traps like gullies and road
beds below steep road banks.
Yesterday’s old, but still
pertinent news: naturals observed from the last storm included Banana Days
(photos posted here
and here);
with small slides from early in the storm on the east face Kessler and in the Monitor. In the backcountry, one slide was triggered on
SE facing slope 15 to 30 inches deep by 50 feet wide, and a shooting crack on a
NW facing slope, 10,000’. Highway and
resort control work triggered numerous new snow wind slabs, averaging 6 to 12
inches deep, with a few up to 3 feet deep, most in the 50 to 100 foot range. All this activity appeared to be storm snow
only, with many slides failing on graupel.
For today, it’s too
much snow too fast… While the avalanche activity is probably peaking this
morning with the high precipitation rates, it will continue to be easy for
people to trigger loose snow sluffs and soft slab avalanches today. Natural slides are still possible, especially
in wind affected terrain. Anytime snowfall
rates increase again today or the winds pick up where you are, avalanche activity,
including spontaneous slides, will increase rapidly. Any backcountry travel today necessitates careful
route finding, and uncertainty requires conservative decision making.
Deeper slides are also
possible - any slide triggered in the new snow could step down, taking out the
snow from two or more storms, resulting in a much larger, longer running slide.
These larger slides could be 2 to 4
feet deep and 100 to 200 feet wide. Adding
to the tricky conditions, not all the near surface facets and surface hoar were
blasted away by the Sunday’s winds, and some got preserved and buried,
especially in wind sheltered, protected spots.
Bottom Line for the
The avalanche
danger is HIGH on
and below most slopes steeper than about 35 degrees. Both
human triggered and natural avalanches are likely today. Travelers heading
into the backcountry today need excellent snowpack and terrain evaluation
skills. Stay on low angle slopes
and avoid avalanche runout zones. Watch
out for and avoid terrain traps such as gullies and road beds or trails below steep
banks.
Mountain Weather:
The cold front has
moved south of the area, and snow fall should taper off for a while this
morning. Snow could increase again by
noon as a secondary disturbance moves into the area, and areas favored by
northwest flow could pick up an additional 6 to 8” of snow today. The northwesterly winds will remain in the 15
to 25 mph range, with gusts to 50 in the more exposed terrain. Temperatures will be in the low teens at
8,000’ and near zero at 10,000. Partial
clearing tonight, with gusty northwesterly winds and sub zero temperatures. The next stronger storm will move through
northern
Announcements
Yesterday, the Wasatch Powderbird Guides flew
in
The second annual avalanche awareness
snowmobile ride is Saturday, February 2nd and proceeds will help
support snowmobile specific avalanche awareness projects. Details can be found at http://www.avarides.com/
Backcountry Awareness Week is February 8-10th,
featuring a Friday night fundraising dinner with guest speaker David Oliver
Relin, author of the New York Times bestseller Three Cups of Tea: One Man's
If you want to get this avalanche advisory e-mailed to you daily click HERE.
UDOT highway avalanche control work info can be
found by calling (801) 975-4838.
Our statewide tollfree line is 1-888-999-4019 (early morning, option 8).
The UAC depends
on contributions from users like you to support our work. To find out
more about how you can support our efforts to continue providing the avalanche
forecasting and education that you expect please visit our Friends page.
If you see any avalanches or interesting snow conditions, please leave us 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 on Thursday morning.