Wasatch Cache and Uinta
National Forests
In partnership with:
Tri-City Performance, Polaris, the
.
Avalanche ADVISORY
wednesday
november 22, 2006
The information in this advisory expires 24 hours after
the date and time it’s issued.
This is Craig Gordon with the
This
advisory covers the terrain from Daniels Summit, to
Current Conditions:
Overnight, skies cleared allowing temperatures to cool into the low 30’s after yesterdays near record setting highs of 50 degrees at 8,000’. Closer to the 10,000’ ridges it’s in the upper 20’s. The strong southerly winds that ushered in these Caribbean-like temperatures have calmed down in the past couple of hours and are now blowing 10-20 mph along the high peaks. The riding and turning conditions are better than a bad day in the office, but the lack of snow limits your terrain options. Above 9,500’ the shady slopes offer 2’-3’ of total snow depth and there are still some patches of dense powder in between the wind damage and heat crusts. On the other side of the compass, sunny slopes are beginning to revert back to their fall colors.
Avalanche Conditions:
Yesterday’s strong southerly winds found what little snow there is out there and created shallow wind slabs along the leeward terrain at the upper elevations. If your travels take you into steep shady upper elevation slopes today, be on the lookout for and avoid these fat looking pillows of snow. These pockets of unstable snow are isolated and while your chances of slamming into a stump or buried rock are probably better than triggering a slide right now, going for a ride in an avalanche would have severe body bruising consequences.
In the bigger snowpack picture, the snow near the ground and at the surface has grown weak and surgary over time. A change in the weather is on the horizon, so it might be a good time to take a moment or two and dig into the snow with your hands or shovel and check out where these weaknesses are most prominent. A little time spent poking around in the snow now, may enable you to have a better handle on the snows stability pattern once winter decides to get going.
Remember- early season avalanche accidents and close calls occur each year. Carry and know how to use an avalanche beacon, shovel and probe.
Bottom Line:
At and above tree-line, the avalanche danger is MODERATE on all slopes steeper than about 35 degrees facing
the north half of the compass especially those with both old and recent
deposits of wind drifted snow. A MODERATE avalanche danger means human triggered avalanches
are possible.
At mid and lower elevations and on slopes which
didn’t have any pre-existing snow prior to last weekend’s storm the avalanche
danger is generally LOW.
Mountain Weather:
Today we should see increasing clouds and mild
temperatures. Highs at 8,000’ will reach into the upper 40’s and at 10,000’
near freezing. A fast moving storm races into the region Thanksgiving morning
and we should see 3”-5” of snow out of this system before it rapidly exits the
state
Announcements:
Free avalanche awareness classes are available. Give
me a call at 801-231-2170 or email [email protected]
and get one scheduled before the season gets too crazy!
If any terms confuse you, take a look at our new avalanche encyclopedia.
For avalanche photos click here.
General
Information:
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’ll update this
advisory by
This advisory is
also available by calling 1-800-648-7433 or
1-888-999-4019.
.