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
Monday,
February 04, 2008 7:30 am
Good morning, this is
Big and Little
Current Conditions:
Impressive storm, with
very impressive snow totals before frontal passage and after. In the crosshairs of the strong southwesterly
flow, the Park City, Provo, Ogden, and the upper reaches of Big Cottonwood Canyon
raked in the early snowfall with totals now reaching 25-30” in Ogden and Provo,
and 30-40” in upper BCC and the Park City mountains. Little
Snow and Avalanche Discussion:
Natural and
artificially triggered long running avalanches ripped out across the range
yesterday and overnight, with many crossing the closed canyon roads from
You’ll still be able
to trigger larger wind drifts along the higher ridgelines today, with many
slides, including loose snow avalanches, running far and piling up good debris
piles in the flats or terrain traps. Outlying
players include colder ‘persistent’ new snow instabilities that are a little
slower to heal. Wise use of terrain,
safe travel protocol, and slope cuts should manage much of these types of
instabilities, though they become unmanageable when they pull out deeper than
two feet. The snow will be good tomorrow
– the wise choice would be to allow things to settle out for another day and
continue to play in simpler terrain.
Bottom Line for the
The
avalanche danger is CONSIDERABLE with storm snow and loose snow avalanches
on all aspects and elevations. Fresh wind drifts will be particularly prevalent
in the upper elevation, generally easterly facing terrain. Many avalanches, even new snow sluffs, will
have the propensity to run far and entrain a good deal of snow. You’ll want to be aware of what or who is
above you, and what the terrain looks like below to avoid any unpleasant
surprises. Slope cuts and cornice drops
may be unmanageable due to the depth of the storm snow instabilities.
Mountain Weather:
Snow showers are
likely for most of the day with light to moderate northwesterly winds. 8000 and 10,000’ temps will be in the mid
teens and single digits, respectively.
We’ll get a bit of a break tonight into tomorrow with the next storms
rolling in Wednesday, and late Thursday.
High pressure builds in briefly for the weekend, with rapidly rising
temperatures under sunny skies.
Announcements
Yesterday, the WPG
didn’t get out, and are unlikely to get out today. They are permitted for terrain in American Fork,
the Sessions, Lambs, and Cascade on Mondays.
For more detailed information
please call (801) 742-2800 or go to their daily blog.
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.
Brett Kobernik will update this advisory by 7:30 on Tuesday morning.