Avalanche Advisory
| Advisory: Salt Lake Area Mountains | Issued by Brett Kobernik for February 8, 2013 - 6:37am |
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Above 9,500 ft.
8,000-9,500 ft.
Below 8,000 ft.
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bottom line A MODERATE avalanche danger remains on the mid and upper elevation northerly and east facing slopes. Human triggered avalanches are possible. Southerly winds may have created some fresh sensitive drifts along the ridges and could enhance the chance of triggering an avalanche that breaks into old weak snow.
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special announcement TONIGHT: |
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current conditions Temperatures are a bit warmer than 24 hours ago but still dipped into the teens in the higher terrain. As anticipated, the southerly winds picked up and are blowing in the moderate category with stronger gusts. The snow surface is a mixed bag of soft settled snow, wind crusts and sun crusts depending on aspect, elevation and slope angle. |
Avalanche Problem 1over the next 24 hours
| type | aspect/elevation | characteristics |
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Above 9,500 ft.
8,000-9,500 ft.
Below 8,000 ft.
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description
The recent winds may have changed the avalanche conditions over the last 12 hours by creating fresh drifts. I suspect any of these will be somewhat stubborn which can be misleading when they aren't reacting to prodding. Continue to use slope cuts prior to diving into any steep terrain. Don't trust any fresh drift especially in committing terrain such as above rocks or cliffs as well as having trees below.
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weather Southerly winds will continue in the moderate speed category with some stronger gusts for most of the day. Ridgetop temperatures will get into the 20s. A storm is at our doorstep and should start to produce snowfall this afternoon with a good shot coming in a southwest flow tonight into Saturday. As the system gradually moves through, the flow will change to a northwest flow where we should see more accumulations Saturday night into Sunday. The storm lingers into Monday. It looks fairly cold and winds don't look like they'll ever get out of hand. The new snow should fall right side up, that is, densities decreasing as the storm progresses. I'm anticipating about a foot of snow and an inch of water. There is the distinct possibility some areas will do much better. This has the potential to be a real good storm for backcountry enthusiasts. |
| general annoucements Go to http://www.backcountry.com/utah-avalanche-center to get tickets from our partners at Park City, Beaver Mountain, Canyons, Sundance, and Wolf Mountain. All proceeds benefit the Utah Avalanche Center. If you trigger an avalanche in the backcountry - especially if you are adjacent to a ski area – please call the following teams to alert them to the slide and whether anyone is missing or not. Rescue teams can be exposed to significant hazard when responding to avalanches, and do not want to do so when unneeded. Thanks. Salt Lake and Park City – Alta Central (801-742-2033), Canyons Resort Dispatch (435-615-3322) Ogden – Snowbasin Patrol Dispatch (801-620-1017) Powder Mountain Ski Patrol Dispatch (801-745-3773 ex 123) Provo – Sundance Patrol Dispatch (801-223-4150) Dawn Patrol Forecast Hotline, updated by 05:30: 888-999-4019 option 8. Twitter Updates for your mobile phone - DETAILS Daily observations are frequently posted by 10 pm each evening. Subscribe to the daily avalanche advisory e-mail click HERE. UDOT canyon closures UDOT at (801) 975-4838 Wasatch Powderbird Guides does daily updates about where they'll be operating on this blog http://powderbird.blogspot.com/ . Remember your information can save lives. If you see anything we should know about, please participate in the creation of our own community avalanche advisory by submitting snow and avalanche conditions. You can also call us at 801-524-5304 or 800-662-4140, or email by clicking HERE Donate to your favorite non-profit –The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center. The UAC depends on contributions from users like you to support our work. For a print version of this advisory click HERE. This advisory is produced by the U.S. Forest Service, which is solely responsible for its content. It describes only general avalanche conditions and local variations always exist. Specific terrain and route finding decisions should always be based on skills learned in a field-based avalanche class. |