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/

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Avalanche advisory

Monday, December 27, 2004

Good morning, this is Drew Hardesty with the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center with your backcountry avalanche and mountain weather advisory. Today is Monday, December 27, 2004, and its 7:30 in the morning.

Registration for the Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center’s 3-day January avalanche class is now being taken at the Black Diamond retail store.

Free Beacon Rescue Training Centers are now open at Snowbird and the Canyons. For more information go to wasatchbackcountryrescue.org.

Current Conditions:

Our current weather is dominated by the Low pressure system off the west coast driving wind, clouds, and warm temperatures over northern Utah. Mountain temperatures varied little the last 12 hours and are in the upper twenties and low thirties. The southerly winds took the headlines, however, averaging 30-40mph with occasional gusts into the 60’s, scouring and sandblasting the mountains and anyone venturing along the upper elevations. Fortunately, they’ve lost a little steam, but are still 20-30 mph at 10,000’.

Avalanche Conditions:

The bad news is that the strong winds, eroding snow from the higher elevations, drifted snow down off the ridgelines and into the mid and lower elevations and loading areas well below typical starting zones. Crossloading occurred in side drainages and chutes and gulleys served as encatchment areas. The wind damage was extensive. Much of the snow drifted on slick underlying bed surfaces and areas with weak faceted snow. The good news was that there just wasn’t that much snow to blow around. Nonetheless, if you’re out today, look for these smooth and rounded hard drifts on a variety of aspects at the mid and lower elevations. It’s unlikely that they would be large enough to bury you, but if your consequences include getting carried over a cliff or buried in a terrain trap, it’ll probably ruin your day.

Bottom Line: The avalanche danger is LOW in most areas. A MODERATE danger exists on any steep slope with recent wind loading. An isolated danger remains on steep north through east facing slopes, especially in thin snowpack areas.

Mountain Weather:

We’ll see mostly cloudy skies with a few flakes thrown in for good measure. Temps will be in the upper twenties and low thirties this morning and cooling throughout the day. The winds will be 20-25mph from the south. The best chance of snow looks like Wednesday morning through the weekend as a series of storms line up for northern Utah.

The Wasatch Powderbird Guides didn’t get out yesterday due to weather. If they can get out today, they’ll be in American Fork and the Cascade ridgeline in Provo.

We do an early morning update around 6am each day on the 364-1591 line.

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.

Brett Kobernik will update this advisory by 7:30 on Tuesday morning.

Thanks for calling

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For an explanation of avalanche danger ratings:

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