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

Friday, January 24, 2003

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To see cool photos of recent avalanche activity CLICK HERE (Updated 1-18-03)

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To see graph of the current snow profile CLICK HERE (Updated 1-21-03)

Good Morning. This is Tom Kimbrough with the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center with your backcountry avalanche and mountain weather advisory. Today is Friday, January 24, 2003, and it’s 7:30 in the morning. This advisory is brought to you by our partner, the Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center, generously supported by Black Diamond Equipment.

Current Conditions:

Yesterday’s whopping 2 inches of new snow quickly turned to wet goop in the warm sun on most slopes and it will be warm again today. At dawn mountain temperatures are in the mid to upper twenties and low thirties. Winds are westerly around 5 to 15 mph with gusts to 20. Snowfall began about 5:00 a.m. in the upper Cottonwoods. Yesterday’s 2 inches didn’t do much to improve the crusty snow conditions but there are patches of decent settled powder on shady slopes and some southerly facing slopes are sort of supportable.

Avalanche Conditions:

Bruce’s cat may still be asleep but his tail is twitching a little. There were a few damp sluffs yesterday, both human triggered and natural. A person triggered a sluff on Scott’s Peak on the Park City ridgeline and two more sluffs were triggered in the Wilson Chutes in Mill Creek. These last two gouged down to the ground and involved plenty of snow. A few wet sluffs also ran naturally on northerly facing slopes below 7,000 feet, one of which put a few inches of snow on the Ogden Canyon road. There were also a couple of soft wind drifts along the high ridges that were breaking about 4 to 8 inches deep.

The mountains may get another dusting of new snow but temperatures will be warm again today, with a rain/snow line at about 7,000 feet. Although large avalanches are unlikely today, be alert for shallow drifts along the high ridges and wet loose sluffs especially on northerly facing steep slopes at lower elevations. If we get lucky and this next disturbance puts down more new snow than expected, the danger will be proportionally higher.

Bottom Line (SLC, Park City, Ogden and Logan Area Mountains):

There is a mostly LOW avalanche danger on all slopes. If we get more than a few inches of snow today, the danger may rise to MODERATE on steep slopes with recent wind drifts.

Western Uintas – call 1-800-648-7433 or click here for weekend and holiday forecasts.

Mountain Weather:

Skies will be mostly cloudy this morning with snow, decreasing to showers by about noon. Winds will be westerly 10 to 20 mph over the ridges. Mountain temperatures will be in the thirties. We should get a break this afternoon with some clearing. Clouds will move back in tonight with a chance of snow after midnight. Saturday morning looks snowy again but with much stronger northwest winds. Sunday will be clear with yet another weak storm possible late Monday. Storm totals today should be around 2 to 4 inches with about the same amount on Saturday.

General Information:

Weather permitting, Wasatch Powderbird Guides will fly today in Days, Silver, Cardiff and may also take some runs in Mill Creek and Lambs Canyon, returning through Grizzly Gulch.

The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center, supported by Voile and Milosport, are offering an intensive three-day avalanche class February 15 – 17. Half of the spots are reserved for snowboarders. To sign up call the Black Diamond retail store at 801-278-0233.

On Sunday February 2^nd there will be a fundraiser for the Wasatch Backcountry Rescue avalanche dog program. Tickets are available at the Black Diamond retail store. Please call 435-615-2226 for more information and additional ticket locations.

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.

Evelyn Lees will update this advisory by 7:30 on Saturday morning.

Thanks for calling!

________________________________________________________________________

National Weather Service - Salt Lake City - Snow.

For an explanation of avalanche danger ratings:

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