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,
February 10, 2008 7:30 am
Good morning, this is
I would like
to again thank all those responsible for putting together a successful 5th
Backcountry Awareness week, highlighted by the dinner and Three Cups of Tea
presentation by author David Oliver Relin on Friday night. Sponsors for the week include the
There are still a few slots left for our 3 day avalanche
workshop scheduled for next weekend.
Contact the Black Diamond retail store to sign up - this is sure to fill
soon.
Current Conditions:
Skies are mostly clear
and, thankfully, finally, the west to southwest winds are less than 15mph, even
at the highest elevations. High and low
elevation temperatures are in the mid to upper teens, with the thermal belt boasting
temps in the mid to upper twenties. Green-housing
and warming temperatures yesterday added some insult to the wind-injured snow
surface conditions, resulting in cream-cheese textured wind jack up high and
saturated glop down low. Hero-snow, it
is not; though remember the privilege it always is to be in the mountains.
Snow and Avalanche Discussion:
The rapid warming and
cook-lid of clouds hastened the saturation of the upper layers at the mid and
low elevations, resulting in a few decent wet debris piles beneath steeper
southerly and northerly slopes. Moreover,
the temps caused many roofs
to shed their winter coats while adding stress to many
of the over-hung cornices developed from the strong westerly winds from the
past couple of days. This forecaster
nearly rode a semi-trailer sized cornice down
the slope after it broke 10’ back from the edge and 40’ across the ridgeline,
taking out the skin track (photo1,
photo2). And I wasn’t alone, as many others reported
multi-ton chunks of snow calving off onto the slopes below. As far as I heard, only one pulled out anything
below, a 4’ deep 75’ wide pocket in mid-LCC on a steep north facing slope at
10,300’. Extensive shooting in only
semi-compacted terrain yielded minor results.
Light winds, clear
skies and direct sun will conspire with near freezing temperatures at 10,000’ to
produce ripe conditions for wet avalanching on all sun-exposed slopes and on
saturated slopes at the shady mid and low elevations. Spontaneous human initiated sluffs will be
likely during the heat of the day, and will entrain a dangerous amount of snow,
potentially running far on many of the greased tracks. Avoid being in terrain in and just above terrain
traps such as gulleys and cut-banks, as debris may pile up in impressive
amounts. With saturated snow, move
diagonally across the fall line, lingering only on sub-ridges, and ensure you’re
not knocking snow down on parties below.
Bottom Line for the
The
avalanche danger is mostly MODERATE this morning,
but will rise to CONSIDERABLE with daytime heating not only on all sun
exposed slopes, but the shady slopes at the mid and low elevations. Isolated wind drifts may still be sensitive
along the highest, easterly facing ridgelines, and take care to give the
groaning cornices a wide berth. Timing
and wise
terrain management will be critical to worry-free tours today.
Mountain Weather:
Clear skies will be
accompanied by light winds and warming temps to the mid to upper 30’s at 8000’. A weak storm passes to the north tomorrow,
with a more vigorous storm crashing through on Wednesday.
Announcements
Yesterday, Wasatch Powderbird Guides flew
a recon down along the Cascade Ridgeline above
Backcountry Awareness Week avalanche
safety clinics are being held at Snowbird today. For more information, call
933-2147 or go to http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/fuac-events.htm.
There are a few spots left in the Friends of the
For folks with an Alta pass,
ACE (Alta Community Enrichment) is offering an avalanche awareness class the
evening of Feb 12 and 13, and ½ day the 16th, for $25. Pre Register at [email protected].
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 Monday morning.