Wasatch
Cache and Uinta National
Forests 
In partnership with:
Tri-City Performance, Polaris, the
Avalanche ADVISORY
saturDAY
NOVEMBER 25, 2006
The information in this advisory expires 24 hours after
the date and time it’s issued.
Good Morning! This is Craig
Gordon with the
This
advisory covers the terrain from Daniels Summit, to
Current Conditions:
Skies are clear and temperatures are in the mid teens at 10,000’ and near 20 degrees at the trailheads. Southwesterly winds are blowing 10-20 mph along the ridges. If you ever wanted to be alone in the mountains now‘s your chance… yeah it’s that bleak. Quite frankly, unless you’re getting paid to be out on the snow it’s hard to justify exposing your body, machine, or skis to such abuse. Ted and I got out and about yesterday to poke around and found a combination of rocks, shallow snow depths, rock hard old tracks, sun crusts and wind damaged snow. If you find a patch of soft settled powder, consider yourself lucky.
Avalanche Conditions:
The hard slabs formed by Thursday’s strong southerly winds seem to be welded in place. And while it’s getting hard to trigger an avalanche I think there’s still a stubborn pocket or two lurking out there. The most likely suspect terrain would be steep, shady slopes at upper elevations with a shallow weak underlying snowpack.
The snowpack might be pretty tired and worn out right now, but it’s not going to remain in its limp state for long. Changes in the weather are on tap for early next week and the avalanche stability picture could get rather complex. While the riding is marginal, take a moment or two and dig into the snowpack to get a feel for where the weak snow is most prevalent. Having a good handle on the snowpack now will enable you to get after it safely once the snow starts flying.
Bottom Line:
On most slopes throughout the range the avalanche
danger is generally LOW.
However, on upper elevation steep shady slopes a MODERATE avalanche
danger exists, especially on slopes steeper than 35 degrees facing the north
half of the compass. A MODERATE
avalanche danger means human triggered avalanches are possible.
Mountain Weather:
Occasional
high clouds will drift through the area today and tomorrow as a series of weak storms
clip the state. Highs at 10,000’ will be in the mid to upper 20’s and at 8,000’
in the mid 30’s. Overnight lows dip into the low 20’s. Winds should remain
pretty well behaved today, out of the southwest, blowing in the 15-25 mph range
along the high ridges. Increasing clouds and southerly winds are still on tap
for Sunday, ahead of a strong looking cold front slated to hit the region late
Monday.
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.
.