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 10, 2008 7:30 am
Good morning, this is
Current Conditions:
Other than a few high cumulus drifting amongst the mountains, skies are mostly
clear. Winds are less than 15mph out of the
northwest, and will remain generally light through the day. Temperatures reached into the low 30’s and
upper 30’s at 11,000’ and 9000’ respectively yesterday, and have of course have
plummeted into the teens overnight. The
off aspects offer breakable to supportable sun crusts while the sheltered
northerlies still ride well on the soft settled powder and surface
hoar.
Snow and Avalanche Discussion:
It’s hard to call it
LOW danger when Bill Nalli’s out in the mountains. I’m only teasing, but if there’s anything out
there to trigger, he’ll find it and trigger it - intentionally. His party triggered a small 4” wind slab on a
steep rollover in Broad’s Fork, and then, later, while wandering close to a yawning
glide crack, collapsed the slope, with the upper piece of snow cracking out
100’ on either direction. He’s an avalanche
professional and a student of the snow, and we always get right-on thoughts and
theories and observations from him. In
my opinion, we have an avalanche community, to include backcountry observers, UDOT,
the ski patrols, and heli guides that is second to none.
Both cold and wet
sluffing will be the game today. Some of
the steeper sheltered slopes will likely sluff in the weakening surface snow
and will be manageable with a mindful ski/slope cut in exposed terrain. On the other side of the compass – it will
again be the timing of things. Avoid the
steep sun-exposed slopes during the afternoon.
Natural and easy-to-initiate wet sluffs from the Saturday ‘storm’ snow
are likely once saturated by the sun.
Bottom Line for the
The avalanche danger
is generally LOW, rising to MODERATE
on any steep sun exposed slope. Work
your aspects if hunting for corn snow, starting on the east, then the south,
then the west. Change aspects or slope
angles if the snow surface is becoming unglued.
Mountain Weather:
We’ll have mostly
sunny skies today with light west to northwest winds and rapidly warming
temperatures. 8000’ and 10,000’
temperatures will rise to the low 40’s and low thirties. A clipper to the north will cool things off a
little tomorrow and we’ll see more clouds than snow. By Wednesday, a series of increasingly moist
and cold storms affects the area, persisting into early next week. We could see a fair amount of snow adding up
with these systems.
Announcements
The Wasatch Powderbird Guides flew in
American Fork and Cascade and will return there again for today. 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.