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
Saturday,
February 02, 2008 7:30 am
Good morning, this is Brett Kobernik with
the
Current Conditions:
“Powder Fever” will be
in full force today. Try not to let it
cloud your judgment during the day today.
It’s much harder to make wise decisions when you’re staring at big
untracked bowls of fresh snow. While the
stability is on the increase, don’t be surprised to find a lingering soft slab
that may release on the steeper slopes.
Temperatures dropped into the low single digits overnight and are now on
the rebound. Winds are fairly light from
the west southwest.
Snow and Avalanche Discussion:
One skier was caught,
carried and buried in a soft slab avalanche that occurred off of southeast
facing Davenport Hill in Little Cottonwood on Friday. He was able to dig himself out before his
partner arrived at the scene with no injuries.
It sounds like the slide was around 12 to 14 inches deep with the width
and length a little unclear but the skier reportedly was only carried 50 feet. Other activity included sluffing on the
steeper slopes that would entrain a fair bit of snow depositing some larger
piles of debris. Avalanche control work
above Little Cottonwood produced at least one sizeable avalanche that ran most
of the track.
We’ve had the pleasure
of dealing with mostly new snow instabilities recently. This is nice because new snow weakness
settles out fairly rapidly and is pretty easy to judge for experienced
travelers at least. It’s kind of like “what
you see is what you get”. A visual sweep
lets you know how much natural activity occurred during the storm and quick
hand pits and slope cuts give instant and accurate information. I noted a number of snow stake study plots
showed 3 to 4 inches of settlement during the day on Friday which is another
good indicator of increasing stability.
However, it is just over 24 hours since the most recent snow layer was
added, so don’t be surprised to find a soft slab that may pull out with the
weight of a person. You will probably
need a fairly steep slope approaching 40 degrees or so to get something to
move.
Bottom Line for the
The
avalanche danger is MODERATE on slopes approaching 40 degrees in
steepness. Continue slope cuts and hand
pits to assess the stability of the most recent layering of this series of
storms before just diving in.
Mountain Weather:
Cloudiness is in store
for today with the chance of snow this morning and less chance this afternoon. We’ll see accumulations of a few inches
possible. Temperatures will get into the
low 20s at 8000 feet and light winds will continue from the southwest increasing
through the day. Local groundhogs are
unlikely to see their shadow today, however, it doesn’t
look like the end of winter is in sight.
Yet another storm will affect our area tonight through Sunday and
possibly into Monday. Another good shot
of snow is expected for most mountain locations with the heaviest occurring
during the day on Sunday.
Alta
Forecast Graph
Announcements
Yesterday, Wasatch Powderbird Guides did
not get out Friday and most likely won’t get out today. For more detailed
information please call (801) 742-2800 or go to their daily blog.
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.