Wasatch Cache and Uinta
National Forests
In partnership with:
Tri-City Performance, Polaris, the
.
holiday Avalanche ADVISORY
thursday
november 23, 2006
The information in this advisory expires 24 hours after
the date and time it’s issued.
Happy Thanksgiving, this is
Craig Gordon with the
This
advisory covers the terrain from Daniels Summit, to
Current Conditions:
A fast moving cold front is still expected to clip northern
Avalanche Conditions:
Today we’ll be dealing with two different types of avalanche problems. First off, if today’s new snow starts stacking up be cautious of and avoid any steep upper elevation slope with recent deposits of wind drifted snow.
Secondly is the ongoing possibility of triggering a larger avalanche on weak snow near the ground. Certainly the warm temperatures this past week have allowed the snowpack to strengthen and the deeper slab instabilities we’ve been worried about now have the stored energy of a snapped rubber band. While there are places you could still trigger a large avalanche, they’re becoming more isolated with time. This doesn’t mean you should ride with reckless abandon and I’d still be cautious when approaching steep, upper elevation terrain with a shallow weak snowpack.
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 early next week, 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.
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.
On all other slopes the avalanche danger is generally
LOW.
Mountain Weather:
A cold
front will bring a period of snow to the region this morning, though total
amounts look meager. If we’re lucky we might be able to squeak 2”-4” out of it,
but we’ll most likely end up with just an inch or two. Snow is expected to
taper off to light showers by early afternoon. Temperatures will be cooling
throughout the day, diving into the mid teens by late afternoon. High pressure builds across the area tonight with
generally dry and colder weather expected through the weekend. A major winter
storm is expected to impact the state Monday, bringing significant snowfall to
our area.
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.
.