Wasatc h
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
If you want this advisory
automatically e-mailed to you each day, click HERE.
If you want recent archives
of this advisory, click HERE.
To e-mail us an observation, CLICK HERE.
Good Morning. This is Ethan Greene with the
Current Conditions:
While we’re waiting for Old
Man Winter to show his crusty face, we have gone to afternoon updates. But we are still issuing daily advisories on the
phone lines and internet.
Yesterday temperatures
climbed to near 40 degrees at 8,000’ and into the upper 20’s at 10,000’. Winds have been light out of the northwest,
but along the highest ridgelines there have been some gusts over 30 mph.
The recent warm and sunny
weather has melted much of the snow off the southerly and westerly facing
slopes at mid and low elevations. On the
shady northwest through northeast facing slopes above about 9,000’ spots of soft,
settled recrystalized snow still exist.
So there are still some areas where you can find supportable snow, and some
loud powder turns. It is fairly rocky so
keep an eye out for those early season obstacles, and you may want to bring
your old equipment.
Avalanche Conditions:
Avalanche wise, it’s pretty
quite out there. The only action is the
occasional small sluff on steep, shady slopes within the faceted surface
snow. When the next storm puts a load on
top of the weak, sugary snow, then things will get exciting. So if you are getting out in the backcountry
you should still take a good look at the snow.
Knowing the aspects and elevations where weak snow exists will help you
when winter finally returns.
Bottom Line (SLC,
The avalanche danger is
generally LOW today.
Mountain Weather:
A weak short wave trough will
brush by northern
General Information:
Craig Gordon will be talking
about avalanche awareness tonight at Power Point Sports in Draper. His talk is free, open to the public, and
starts at
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 Salt Lake,
then on Education. At the same location,
you can find a complete list of avalanche talks and multi-day classes.
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 uac@avalanche.org 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.
Tom Kimbrough will update this advisory on Friday
afternoon.
Thanks for calling!
________________________________________________________________________
National Weather Service - Salt
Lake City - Snow.
For an explanation of
avalanche danger ratings: