*** BACKCOUNTRY AVALANCHE AND MOUNTAIN WEATHER ADVISORY *** FOREST SERVICE UTAH AVALANCHE FORECAST CENTER FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 1999, 7:30 AM Good morning, this is Tom Kimbrough with the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Forecast Center. Today is Friday, January 29 and it's 7:30 am. This bulletin is brought to you in part by a donation to the Friends of the Utah Avalanche Forecast Center from The Salt Lake Roasting Company, providing the coffee equivalent to Utah Deep Powder, located at 320 E. 400 S., open 'til midnight Monday through Saturday. Current Conditions: As valley haze thickens today, the mountains will be especially beautiful. Skies are clear, winds are light from northwest and temperatures have warmed a tad, with dawn temperatures in the low teens. The snow is supportable for skiers, snowshoers and snowmobilers; trail breaking is easy and turning conditions are fast and excellent on low angle slopes. Avalanche Conditions: Avalanche activity has calmed down with no deep releases reported yesterday. Some point releases on the southeast facing side of Raymond Peak triggered the upper weakness in the snow pack, releasing slabs about a foot or 18 inches deep but that is the only avalanche activity I have heard about. One party felt a collapse of the snow pack while in some low angle northwest facing trees. People were starting to venture onto bigger slopes yesterday but were still keeping their slope angles under 35 degrees. The weakness that is about a foot below the surface is some faceted snow under a thin crust. This is the layer that a person is most likely to trigger but slides breaking in the upper layers could step down to the deeper weakness. The deeply buried faceted snow, which was still producing huge hard slab avalanches a few days ago is harder to trigger now but if it does cut loose, you will be in world of hurt. That deep weakness could still have some nasty surprises waiting for us. Safe travel techniques are essential. Expose only one person at a time on a slope and get out of the way at the bottom. Evaluate what the consequences of a slide might be; is there a cliff or a narrow gully at the bottom? Watch the slope angles. Mid slope breakovers could be touchy. Remember that while the avalanche danger is becoming less widespread, large and potentially deadly slides are certainly possible. Any deep releases could break wide and pull into near-by low angle areas, maybe catching your partner. The sun is getting higher in the sky so there will probably be some wet point release slides today on steep sunny slopes. The most recent large slides have been on the Park City side of the range. The danger may be higher in that area. Some places in the southern Wasatch got a couple of feet of snow from the Tuesday storm. The avalanche danger will be greater in these areas. Less even and generally smaller total accumulations over the last 10 days have produced tricky avalanche conditions in the southern Wasatch. Some of these places had less avalanche activity during the big storm and thus more slopes may hanging there waiting for a person to trigger them. Ice climbers, snowmobilers, and skiers heading to the Provo mountains should be especially cautious as the avalanche danger is higher in this area. Bottom Line: PROVO: CONSIDERABLE danger of human triggered avalanches on slopes of 35 degrees and steeper. The danger is MODERATE on slopes between 30 and 35 degrees. SLC, OGDEN, PARK CITY: The danger of large and very dangerous avalanches is localized or MODERATE on slopes between 30 and 35 degrees steepness and CONSIDERABLE on slopes steeper than 35 degrees. Mountain weather: High pressure will keep storms north of Utah for the next several days. Skies will be mostly sunny today. Winds will be light and northerly today with 8,000 foot highs in the thirties. 10,000 foot highs will be in the twenties. Temperatures will warm a little on Saturday. The next storm should arrive on Sunday afternoon. Clear skies and a moon approaching full could make this a fine time for night skiing and boarding. (Read when pertinent: Avalanche control crews often shoot military artillery into selected backcountry targets in Little and Big Cottonwood Canyons to protect state roads. The crews usually shoot early in the morning but they may have to shoot in the middle of the day as well. The Town of Alta will sound 3 short blasts of their warning siren 15 minutes before firing. If you plan to travel in the Canyons early or during storms and you need firing information, please contact Alta Central at 801- 742-3522. Again, for recorded information on the Cottonwood Canyons road conditions call: 325-8754 To report snow conditions and avalanche activity call our office at 524-5304 or 1-800-662-4140. The information in this bulletin is from the U.S. Forest Service which is solely responsible for its content. The bulletin describes general avalanche conditions; local variations always occur. Evelyn Lees will update this bulletin by 7:30 on Saturday morning. Thanks for calling. Kimbrough