In partnership with: Utah Division of State
Parks and Recreation, The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center, Utah Department
of Emergency Services and Homeland Security and
“keeping
you on top”
AVALANCHE ADVISORY
Tuesday,
January 09, 2007 7:30 am
Good morning, this is Evelyn Lees with
the
UDOT will be sighting in a weapon in Provo
Canyon tomorrow morning, Wednesday, January 10, around 10 am. Please, no ice climbing in
Current Conditions:
Skies are clear this
morning, and the days of wind are over.
Along the ridgelines, temperatures have been creeping up all night, and
are in the low to mid 20’s. The winds
have shifted to the west, and are less than 15 mph at all but a couple of the
highest peaks. It will be another strikingly beautiful day in the mountains,
though it’s too bad the snow conditions don’t quite mirror the weather
conditions. Snow surface conditions
include a bias relief of old tracks, widespread crusts and wind damage. But with good detective work, you can find stashes
of scattered powder and slopes with more consistent snow, or at least thin
crusts you can blast through.
Snowpack and Avalanche Conditions:
The backcountry was
quiet yesterday. One new slide was
observed from a distance, above
Yesterday, most wind
slabs seemed welded into place, cracking just around your skies with hard
jumps. These stubborn wind drifts are
all over the map, on a wide variety of aspects and elevations, and conditions
change over short distances of just a few steps. Approach any steep, wind drifted slope with
caution, as it still might be possible to trigger one of these drifts, and in
the wrong terrain go for a long ride or off a cliff.
With significantly
warmer temperatures today, it may also be possible to trigger a few damp sluffs
or small slabs on steep, sunny slopes.
And yes, you can still punch your ski pole to the ground in so many
places. The chance of triggering a slide
on one of the deeper faceted weak layer is very small, with the weaker snow
outside the upper elevations in the Cottonwoods, on slopes with a shallow snow
pack.
Bottom Line for the
Most terrain has a LOW avalanche danger.
The avalanche danger is MODERATE on wind
drifted slopes steeper than about 35 degrees.
With daytime heating, it may be possible to trigger a few small slides
on steep, sunny slopes.
Mountain Weather:
Sunshine, light winds
and warm temperatures are in store for the mountains today. 8000’ highs will approach 40, and 10,000’
temperatures will be near freezing.
Winds will be from the west to southwest, generally in the 10 to 15 mph
range. Looking beyond today’s balmy
conditions, you may want to stock up on hand and toe warmers. A very cold Pacific storm system will impact
the area Thursday into the weekend, with periods of heavy snow and temperatures
dropping well below zero.
Announcements:
The Wasatch Powderbird Guides were grounded due to weather yesterday and
today they will be in
Listen to the
advisory. Try our new streaming audio or
podcasts
Our new,
state wide tollfree hotline is 1-888-999-4019.
(For early morning detailed avalanche activity report hit option 8)
For a list of avalanche
classes, click HERE
For our classic text advisory click HERE.
To sign up for automated e-mails of our graphical advisory click HERE
We appreciate any snowpack and
avalanche observations you have, so please leave us a message at (801) 524-5304
or 1-800-662-4140, or email us at uac@avalanche.org.
(Fax 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 Wednesday morning,
and thanks for calling.