Wasatch Cache National Forest

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Avalanche advisory

Monday, MARCH 18, 2002 07:30 AM

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Good morning, this is Ethan Greene with the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center with your backcountry avalanche and mountain weather advisory. Today is Monday, March 18, 2002, and it’s 7:30 a.m.

Current Conditions:

The storm that was expected to bring us more snow overnight has fizzled out. Under partly cloudy skies temperatures dropped near zero at 8,000’ and into the upper single digits at 10,000’. Winds have been light and from the west. Mountain areas picked up an additional 3 to 6 inches of snow yesterday. Snow totals for the week are 50 to 75 inches in the Cottonwood Canyons, about 33” in the Provo and Ogden Mountains, about 36” along the Park City Ridgeline, and over 40” in the Western Uintas.

Avalanche Conditions:

I only received a few reports of avalanche activity yesterday. Along the Park City Ridgeline several new snow avalanche were triggered on steep east and northeast aspects. Our staff visited the site (front view, side view) where two out-of-area snowboarders were killed on Saturday. This tragic accident occurred in steep and rocky terrain on the northwest side of Pioneer Peak. The avalanche broke on a slope greater than 45 degrees in steepness and was 2 to 6 feet deep, 300’ wide, and ran about 500’ vertically. It appears that the slide released when one of the riders passed through a shallow snowpack area.

I have allowed the Special Avalanche Advisory statement to expire, but that does not mean that all of our troubles are over. Rather we are returning to the uncomfortable pattern of having relatively safe and very dangerous areas scattered throughout the Wasatch Range. There are many areas that you can travel through safely, but the possibility of triggering a large and dangerous avalanche remains quite real. Within the last week several human triggered slides have broke 4 to 8 feet deep, and one of these avalanches killed two young men.

Deep slab instabilities are difficult to evaluate because our usual tools may not be effective. Slope history may be as important as information gleamed from snow pits, cornice drops, and looking at old ski or snowmobile tracks. When in doubt keep your slope angles down, avoid steep rocky areas, and remember to use your safe travel skills.

I expect mostly cloudy skies today, but if the sun peeks out from behind the clouds look for signs of increasing instability such as recent avalanches and point releases.

Bottom Line:

Today there is a MODERATE danger of triggering a very large and dangerous avalanche. If daytime heating exceeds expected levels the avalanche danger will increase.

(Provo Area Mountains)

Provo Area Mountains have very weak snowpack and received more snow during the last storm. As a result the avalanche danger in the Provo Mountains is CONSIDERABLE. Very large and dangerous human triggered avalanches are possible.

(Western Uinta Mountains)

The avalanche danger in the Western Uintas is CONSIDERABLE. Very large and dangerous human triggered avalanches are possible.

(Ogden Area Mountains)

Same as above.

Mountain Weather:

The disturbance that was expected to bring us one more shot of snow has fizzled out. Snow flurries are possible today, but only an inch or less is expected. The winds will remain calm and from the northwest and temperatures will rise into the low 20’s at 8,000’ and to near 10 degrees at 10,000’. Tomorrow skies will be mostly cloudy and snow flurries are possible. A ridge of high pressure will move over the Great Basin on Wednesday bringing spring like temperatures Thursday and Friday.

General Information:

Wasatch Powderbird Guides will be flying in American Fork Area today. For more information call 521-6040 ext. 5280.

To report backcountry snow and avalanche conditions, especially if you observe or trigger an avalanche, you can leave a message at (801) 524-5304 or 1-800-662-4140. Or you can e-mail an observation to uacobs@avalanche.org, or you can fax an observation to 801-524-6301.

For more detailed mountain weather and avalanche information, your can call 801-364-1591, which we’ll try to have updated by around noon each day.

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 7:30 on Tuesday morning.

Thanks for calling!

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For more detailed weather information go to our Mountain Weather Advisory

National Weather Service - Salt Lake City - Snow.

For an explanation of avalanche danger ratings:

http://www.avalanche.org/usdanger.htm