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Forecast for the Uintas Area Mountains

Craig Gordon
Issued by Craig Gordon on
Thursday morning, January 30, 2025
Strong overnight winds blowing from the north and northeast whip up a fresh round of stiff drifts, creating MODERATE avalanche danger on upper elevation, leeward, solar aspects. Human triggered wind drifts are POSSIBLE in steep terrain facing the south half of the compass. Switching over to the north half of the compass and becoming more the exception than the rule, once initiated, today's avalanches on polar slopes, could fail deeper into old, sugary facets now buried 1'-3’ beneath the snow surface, delivering a body-bruising slide breaking deeper and wider than we might expect.
All other aspects and elevations offer generally LOW avalanche danger. Riding conditions are a bit of a mixed bag, yet still register in the "this is better than a day at work" category, especially on low angle slopes in wind sheltered terrain.
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Special Announcements
  • Join us at the Pinebrook Beacon Park on Thursday January 30th from 4:30pm - 6:30pm to brush up on your beacon and probing skills! This is a FREE public event for anyone who wants to practice some rescue skills and get you questions answered by avalanche professionals. Parking is easiest in front of Inspired Summit Adventures
  • Urgent battery replacement required for anyone who received batteries from one of our participating "Batteries for Beacons" shops. Please review the "Batteries for Beacons" replacement notice on our blog. Batteries distributed through our "Batteries for Beacons" program this year have shown to be inadequate length.
Weather and Snow
Nowcast- Dang... a storm system churning in the four corners delivers north and northeast winds in the 30's at most ridgetop locations in our zone. However, on the south half of the range near Currant Creek Peak, winds are smokin' in the 40's and 50's. Inverted temperatures register in the teens near the trailheads and mid 20's with elevation gain. Snow surface conditions have taken a bit of a hit, but don't let your heart be troubled, on a go anywhere base, wind sheltered mid elevation, shady slopes, offer soft settled snow.
Forecast- If you can cast aside the fact that northerly winds blowing in the 30's and 40's are gonna be a nuisance, then another beautiful day is on tap. Look for mostly sunny skies with high temperatures climbing into the mid 30's. With clear skies in place, overnight lows dip into the 20's.
Futurecast- The warm before the storm... clouds and wind increase as Friday wares on, with snow developing late in the day. Looking down the pike, an Atmospheric River brings a surge of moisture into the Beehive State, though we're still a little on the fence to where it settles in. A cursory look suggests northern Utah is in the cross-hairs, but just a little sag in the jet stream aligns us with a nice firehose. I'll know more for tomorrow mornings update.
Ted Scroggin, our main man with the Uinta plan, was in the Moffit environs yesterday and found good riding in sheltered terrain, but noted a whole 'lotta wind pressed snow in our big open, alpine bowls. More on his travels HERE.
Recent Avalanches
Avy-savvy, snow-pro, Andy Nassetta was stomping around in Upper Humpy Basin yesterday and made mention of the very weak surface snow which is easily packing a head of steam on sustained steep slopes. Andy's observation illustrates the weakening snow surface... something that could trip us up in steep, comitting terrain and a setup we need to keep an eye on with potential storminess materializing later this week.
Check out more obs and trip reports from across the range and beyond, here!
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Avalanche Problem #1
Wind Drifted Snow
Type
Location
Likelihood
Size
Description
A 24 hour data dump from Currant Creek Peak (10,547') illustrating the recent north and northeast wind run.
Overnight winds pack enough punch to strip upper elevation northerly, windward slopes and whip up a fresh batch of stiff drifts on leeward, southerly facing slopes. One unusual feature of today's winds are their easterly component and that'll help cross-load terrain features with westerly orientation to their aspect. But, whaddya say... let's keep it simple and just steer clear of fat looking rounded pillows of snow, especially if they feel hollow or sound like a drum.
Avalanche Problem #2
Persistent Weak Layer
Type
Location
Likelihood
Size
Description
Persistent weak layer (PWL)... it's in the name, the avalanche encyclopedia, and now a very well written and informative BLOG.
Good news is... the mid December drought layer that is our PWL appears largely dormant. In fact, we haven't seen an avalanche fail to this layer in over two weeks and our stability tests along with pit results are trending nonreactive... in other words, in the right direction. And while that's encouraging, I bet if you're of the hunter-gatherer mindset you could potentially bag a rogue pocket that breaks to older snow in steep, rocky terrain. Now here's the tricky part of the song... the likelihood of triggering has decreased significantly, but the consequences remain severe.
How do you manage an unruly avalanche dragon? I keep it straight forward and tight. I'm avoiding steep, rocky, mid and upper elevation terrain on the north half of the compass, especially where the pack is slightly thinner. And I remind myself... thin spots are potential trigger points and exist near bushes, rocks, or steep rollovers.
General Announcements
The Uinta weather station network was upgraded this summer and all that real-time info is found here. Simply click on the "Western Uinta" tab and then the "Weather Stations" tab to find all your weather needs.
We are always looking for snow and avalanche observations or just general riding conditions. So... if you see something, say something. You can reach our team directly by contacting: Craig at craig@utahavalanchecenter.org, 801-231-2170, or Andrew at andy@utahavalanchecenter.org, or 860-460-8142.
General Information
This forecast is from the U.S.D.A. Forest Service, which is solely responsible for its content. This forecast describes general avalanche conditions and local variations always occur. This forecast was issued on Thursday, January 30th at 04:00AM and expires 24 hours after it was issued. We will update the forecast by 0700 AM tomorrow. But, in the meantime reach out to us with questions, or if you see anything in your travels.
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