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,
February 27, 2008 7:30 am
Good morning, this is
Current Conditions:
Typical for this time
of year, yesterday it warmed up in a hurry and most slopes facing the south
half of the compass got soggy while the northerly facing slopes remained cooler
and dry, where riding conditions will remain good today.
Snow and Avalanche Discussion:
There were a number of
close calls yesterday with four significant, human triggered avalanches I heard
about with a total of four caught and one injured. In Little Cottonwood Canyon, 5 skiers were
traversing a southwest slope in Toledo Bowl when they triggered a soft slab 2
feet deep and 100 feet wide, which washed three of them well down the slope and
they lost much of their equipment. Also
a skier triggered a similar avalanche in Emma 2, which is south facing and
several skiers triggered several wet avalanches while doing what local
avalanche forecasters described as “really stupid things in the heat of the
afternoon” on the steep, south-facing slopes of Superior. In Big Cottonwood, during a filming project,
a skier triggered a soft slab on east facing Cardiac Ridge, was caught and
injured his elbow. Late in the day there
was another remotely triggered a large soft slab on east facing
The problem seems to be a combination of four different factors: 1) buried
faceted snow on a hard, melt-freeze crust from last week, 2) graupel pooling
beneath cliffs, 3) strong northwest winds two days ago drifted snow onto south
and east facing slopes, and 4) intense heating from sun on the east and south
facing slopes—the exact slopes loaded by the winds from the day before. I suspect that some of these problems will
linger into today, so you should continue to be very cautious of steep slopes
that face the south and east quadrants of the compass. Temperatures will be even warmer today and
the sun will be equally strong, so expect continued wet sluffs in the heat of
the day. The north facing slopes seemed
to stay intact quite well yesterday, which is also where you will find the best
snow.
Bottom Line for the
The avalanche danger
will vary dramatically depending on aspect and timing. Today will remain a LOW danger
on sun and wind sheltered slope in the morning.
South and east facing slopes will have a MODERATE
danger, with continued pockets of CONSIDERABLE as the slopes heat up in the
sun.
Mountain Weather:
Ridge top temperatures
have risen to the mid 20’s this morning, which is 15 degrees warmer than
yesterday morning. The mountain valley
bottoms are still quite cold this morning from a strong temperature inversion
but you will quickly climb out of it as you ascend. With calm winds and strong springtime sun,
the 8,000’ temperatures should climb into the mid 40’s by mid day. Skies will be mostly clear with some high
clouds later in the day. For the
extended forecast, we will have another storm Saturday and yet another Tuesday.
Announcements
The Wasatch Powderbird Guides flew
yesterday in Cardiff, White Pine and American Fork and today they will be in
the same areas plus Mineral, Silver, White Pine and Cascade. For more detailed information please call
(801) 742-2800 or go to their daily
blog.
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).
Watch video tututorials and fieldwork from UAC staff at our YouTube
channel.
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.