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,
March 03, 2008 7:30 am
Good morning, this is
Current Conditions:
Don’t get me
wrong. It’s critical to our operation
down here in our indoor cubicle with no windows that we receive observations
from the field confirming, refuting, or adding to the current theories and
forecasts. I do want to personally thank
every one of you who called and emailed saying it was one of the best days of
the year and it was only because their cell phone batteries died from the
endless amount of gloating that went on and on that I never heard much about
snow stability.
What we do know is
that it will be another amazing day in the Wasatch. Again, storm totals from Saturday night into
Sunday were 12-16” in the Cottonwoods, and 10”, 7”, and 4” in the
Snow and Avalanche Discussion:
Textbook EKG monitor
for snow stability with the storm. We
went from long running naturals crossing LCC to explosive initiated avalanches
crossing the road to almost nothing by the early afternoon. Many of the slides at the ski areas were
described as going into ‘hovercraft mode’, failing within the new fluff, and running
exceptionally long distances in the lower density snow. Folks in the backcountry reported widespread
sluffing out of the wind-affected terrain with one skier taking a short
ride in the Wilson Chutes, a steep northeast facing line along the upper
Mill Creek ridgeline. Shear tests indicated rapidly bonding and settling
instabilities, and another 12 hours will have things continuing in that trend, though
slightly mitigated by the colder temperatures.
Sluffing will again be
the concern for today on both the cold and the warm aspects. The first direct sun on the colder snow will
initiate new snow sluffing on the southerly aspects, and those exiting the
sunny aspects in the afternoon will want to choose mellower terrain to avoid
kicking off any wet sluffs. Again, the expectation
is that these will have the capacity to run far and entrain lots of snow. In steeper terrain approaching 40 degrees,
watch over your shoulder with your ski/slope cuts, and move diagonally across
the fall line. Go from island of safety
to island of safety and get out of the way at the bottom.
Bottom Line for the
Mountain Weather:
We’ll have clear skies
and light, but gusty northwesterly winds today.
Mountain temperatures will be on the upward march to the upper teens by
the afternoon as 8000’ temps rise to near 30 degrees. The next storm looks to be a mini-version of
Saturday night’s with less wind and water, but should be good enough for
another fresh coat of paint on the hillsides.
High pressure kicks in for the remainder of the week with more storms on
the way for the weekend. The longer
range models suggest a good, active pattern through at least mid-month.
Announcements
The Wasatch Powderbird Guides didn’t get
out yesterday, and today are likely to use an “earned Monday” in the Tri
Canyons and will have one ship in Silver, Days, Cardiff, and Mineral, with
another ship in the Gobbler’s and Porter Fork area. 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.