Join us at our 2nd Annual Blizzard Ball

Forecast for the Uintas Area Mountains

Craig Gordon
Issued by Craig Gordon on
Saturday morning, January 25, 2025
In a sea of mostly green avy hazard you'll still find pockets of MODERATE avalanche danger in the wind-zone above treeline. Human triggered avalanches are POSSIBLE, especially on steep, wind-drifted, upper-elevation slopes facing the north half of the compass. While becoming more the exception than the rule, any slide initiated on a steep, shady slope, may fail on weak, sugary, faceted snow, delivering a deeper and wider slide than we might've bargained for.
Out of the wind-zone, LOW avalanche danger exists on all other aspects and elevations, but riding conditions are a hit or miss, mixed bag of snow surface conditions.
Low
Moderate
Considerable
High
Extreme
Learn how to read the forecast here
Special Announcements
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.
  • Please join the UAC at Deer Valley on January 30th for the 2nd Annual Blizzard Ball Gala. The night will be full of fun including delicious cuisine, live music, an auction, and presentation by Bruce Tremper. More info found here.
Weather and Snow
Nowcast- Thickening clouds settled in overnight, ushering in a stray snow flurry or two along with temperatures in the low teens. Hooray... we clawed our way out of the icebox! After a multi-day residency, southwest winds finally relaxed just in time for Friday nights dinner party and currently blow in the teens near the high peaks. The snow surface has taken a beating, but with a little patience and some stubborn fortitude, you can still find swaths of soft snow on very wind sheltered, shady slopes.
Forecast- Under mostly cloudy skies, look for on again, off again snow showers with minor accumulations expected across most of the range... though the south half of the range near Currant Creek and Daniels may over-produce. Temperatures climb into the mid 20's and southerly winds blowing in the teens remain rather well-behaved throughout the day.
Futurecast- We are high and dry going into next week.
Snow totals are bit up in the air. The pessimist in me says a trace of snow... the optimist says a couple traces of snow. Perhaps the truth lays somewhere in-between :)
Recent Avalanches
A result of fierce, northerly, midweek winds... a shallow, yet well connected natural avalanche in the image above was reported Wednesday on a steep, southeast facing slope in the wind zone of Upper Weber Canyon.
You can find trip reports and recent slides from across the range and beyond, here.
Ad
Avalanche Problem #1
Wind Drifted Snow
Type
Location
Likelihood
Size
Description
Above, a 24 hour data dump from Windy Peak (10,662') illustrating a solid southwest wind run in the alpine.
Winds have blown for days, whipping up several batches of dense, hard slabs on upper elevation leeward slopes. Unfortunately, recent drifts will feel solid under our skis, board, or sled and allow us to get well out on slope before breaking above us and have the potential to step down into weaker layers, now buried deeper in the snowpack.
Today's drifts are a mostly manageable and straight-forward avalanche problem with proper terrain choices and travel techniques. Choose clean slope run outs with less severe consequences like cliffs, rocks, or terrain traps and travel mindfully by exposing only one person at a time to the potential hazard.
Avalanche Problem #2
Persistent Weak Layer
Type
Location
Likelihood
Size
Description
The last reported avalanche failing on our now mostly dormant problem child, the Persistent Weak Layer (PWL) formed during the December drought, was over a week ago on Sunday, January 12th. Good news is the snowpack has slowly gotten comfortable in its own skin. The tricky part is... while the likelihood of triggering a nasty persistent slab avalanche has gone down significantly over the past few weeks, the consequences remain severe if we do.
How do we manage an unmanageable avalanche dragon? All the snow-pros I knows, are avoiding the usual suspect slopes... steep, rocky, mid and upper elevation terrain, especially where the pack is slightly thinner. And remember... 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 Saturday, January 25th 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.