Wasatch
Cache National Forest
In partnership with: The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Forecast Center, Utah Department of
Public Safety Division of Comprehensive Emergency Management, Salt Lake County,
and Utah State Parks
The
Utah Avalanche Center
Home page is: http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/
Avalanche advisory
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Good Morning. This is Tom Kimbrough with the
Current Conditions:
As the valley smog thickens
there is all the more reason to get up into the mountains where the weather is delightful,
even if the snow cover leaves a lot to be desired. Skies are clear in the mountains this morning,
with overnight lows in the upper twenties and low thirties. Winds are light and variable.
There are patches of soft,
recrystalized snow on mid and upper elevation northerly facing slopes. Elsewhere, there are widespread sun and wind
crusts. The meager snowpack is limited
to the mid and upper elevations with snow depths of about zip to a couple of
feet. Snowmobiling is limited to mid and
upper elevation roads and trails. Snowshoes
are a good choice for the current conditions.
Avalanche Conditions:
Loose sluffs of the surface
snow on shady slopes is the main avalanche consideration at this time. On shady, northerly facing places, the snow
surface has become loose and sugary and will move easily with a person on slopes
approaching about 40 degrees steepness. Some
of these sluffs could be large enough to knock you off your feet and take you
downhill. In addition, there are a few
shallow wind drifts along the higher ridges that could crack under the weight
of a person. If a sluff or a shallow
drift does catch you, the ride would be like a trip down a big cheese grater considering
all the rocks and obstacles that you could be dragged over.
Although there isn’t much
snow left on southerly facing slopes there is a possibility of a few wet snow
sluffs off upper elevation rock bands that heat up under the sun.
Bottom Line (SLC,
The avalanche danger is
generally LOW today, isolated to a few loose sluffs on very steep shady
and sunny slopes and some old wind slabs.
Mountain Weather:
It will be another delightful
day in the mountains, with warm temperatures and light winds. Highs at 8,000 feet will be in the mid to
upper 40’s and near 40 at 10,000. Expect
increasing clouds tonight with light southerly winds as a weak storm approaches
for the weekend. Saturday will be mostly
cloudy and cooler and light snow is possible on Sunday. Accumulations on Sunday are likely to be only
a few inches at best and, unfortunately, high pressure will return next week.
General Information:
A great Christmas present for
someone you love is an avalanche beacon.
To help you decide which one to buy, we have posted a couple recent
tests of various brands of avalanche beacons on the web. Point your browser to www.avalanche.org and click on
To report backcountry snow
and avalanche conditions, especially if you observe or trigger an avalanche, call
(801) 524-5304 or 1-800-662-4140, or email to [email protected]
or fax to 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.
Bruce Tremper will update this advisory by
Thanks for calling!
________________________________________________________________________
National
Weather Service - Salt Lake City - Snow.
For an explanation of
avalanche danger ratings: