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
Monday,
January 15, 2007 7:30 am
Good morning, this is Drew Hardesty with
the
Current Conditions:
High pressure will
continue to build over the region as warm air aloft moves in to enhance and
strengthen inversions over the valleys.
The higher mountain stations have temps a few degrees below zero while
the thermometers at the bases of some of the alpine drainages have plummeted to
14 below. The klister will have to stay
in the box yet another day. The
northwesterly winds bumped just along the highest ridgelines overnight into the
20-30 mph range with gusts into the 40’s, but are light in more sheltered
areas. Riding conditions are about the
same as yesterday – best on the sheltered shady lower angled slopes that
weren’t blasted by last week’s wind. The
cold temps and low angle of the sun have prevented the sunny slopes from
becoming crusted while surface hoar glitters on much of the terrain.
Snowpack and Avalanche Conditions:
One skier in American
Fork managed to find and trigger a foot deep 20’ wide hard slab on the sidewall
of a steep gulley yesterday, but that was about it, other than some
skier-induced sluffing on some steeper slopes.
Those traveling today
along the highest ridgelines should watch for some new drifting in the low
density snow, primarily on the southerly and easterly aspects. The new drifts, while shallow, may be
particularly sensitive as they will come to rest on some very weak surface
snow. Remote triggering is a
possibility.
Bottom Line for the
Today the avalanche
danger is generally LOW with a localized MODERATE danger of loose snow avalanches and shallow new
wind drifts in the higher terrain. Human
triggered slides will be possible.
Mountain Weather:
Sunny skies will
prevail with 8000’ temps reaching into the teens and the 10,000’ temps heading
to ten degrees. Along the highest
ridgelines, the northerly winds will blow 20-30mph until about midday. The extended outlook looks pretty bleak. The next system moves in about mid-week and
splits. The northern branch grazes
northern Utah Wednesday/Thursday while the southern branch closes off and spins
off the coast of southern
Announcements:
Yesterday, the Wasatch Powderbird Guides flew in AF, Snake Creek, and
along the Cascade ridgeline. Today,
they’ll return, within a possible home run out White Pine. If you have
questions regarding their areas of operation you can contact them at 742-2800.
Our partners, the Friends
of the UAC, are hosting the 4th Annual Backcountry Awareness Week Fundraising
Dinner on Friday, February 2, 2007. The dinner will be at The Canyons and
Olympic Gold Medal Winner Jim Shea will be the keynote speaker. For tickets and
information visit www.UtahAvalanceCenter.com
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 will update this advisory by 7:30 on Tuesday morning, and thanks
for calling.