Wednesday - February 27, 2008 - 9:17 am SUMMARY >>> The avalanche danger will vary dramatically depending on aspect and timing. Today will remain a LOW danger on sun and wind sheltered slope in the morning. South and east facing slopes will have a MODERATE danger, with continued pockets of CONSIDERABLE as the slopes heat up in the sun. Forecaster: Bruce Tremper CURRENT CONDITIONS >>> Typical for this time of year, yesterday it warmed up in a hurry and most slopes facing the south half of the compass got soggy while the northerly facing slopes remained cooler and dry, where riding conditions will remain good today. RECENT AVALANCHES AND SNOWPACK INFO >>> There were a number of close calls yesterday with four significant, human triggered avalanches I heard about with a total of five caught and one injured. In Little Cottonwood Canyon, 5 skiers were traversing a southwest slope in Toledo Bowl when they triggered a soft slab 2 feet deep and 100 feet wide, which washed three of them well down the slope and they lost much of their equipment. Also a skier triggered a similar avalanche in Emma 2, which is south facing and several skiers triggered several wet avalanches while doing what local avalanche forecasters described as "really stupid things in the heat of the afternoon" on the steep, south-facing slopes of Superior. In Big Cottonwood, during a filming project, a skier triggered a soft slab on southeast facing Cardiac Ridge, was caught and injured his elbow. Late in the day there was another remotely triggered a large soft slab on east facing Kessler Peak . Finally, a snowboarder triggered a slide in Dutch Draw near Canyons Resort and they may have been caught in the slide. You can find details on our Avalanche List and on the Photos page . I also have a video of my field day yesterday. AVALANCHE CONCERNS >>> strong northwest winds two days ago intense heating from sun on the east and south facing slopes--the exact slopes loaded by the winds from the day before. I suspect that some of these problems will linger into today, so you should continue to be very cautious of steep slopes that face the south and east quadrants of the compass. Temperatures will be even warmer today and the sun will be equally strong, so expect continued wet sluffs in the heat of the day. The north facing slopes seemed to stay intact quite well yesterday, which is also where you will find the best snow. MOUNTAIN WEATHER >>> Ridge top temperatures have risen to the mid 20's this morning, which is 15 degrees warmer than yesterday morning. The mountain valley bottoms are still quite cold this morning from a strong temperature inversion but you will quickly climb out of it as you ascend. With calm winds and strong springtime sun, the 8,000' temperatures should climb into the mid 40's by mid day. Skies will be mostly clear with some high clouds by mid morning. Thursday and Friday will be mostly sunny and warm as well. For the extended forecast, we have another storm on Saturday and yet another for about Tuesday.