Wasatch Cache and Uinta National Forests

In partnership with: Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center, The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center and Utah State Parks.

Avalanche ADVISORY

saturday January 1, 2005

Good morning and happy New Year! This is Craig Gordon with the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center with your avalanche and mountain weather advisory for the western Uinta Mountains. Today is Saturday, January 1, 2005 and it’s 7:00 a.m.

Announcements:

We’re experiencing some technical difficulties with the Moffit Peak weather station. Hopefully I’ll have those worked out early next week.

For recent avalanche photos click here.

Current Conditions:

Ushering in the New Year, another foot of snow has fallen overnight increasing both storm totals and the avalanche danger. Since Tuesday we’ve received 3’-4’ of snow at the upper elevations and an AVALANCHE WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT TODAY. Winds have backed off and turned more westerly and are currently blowing in the 10-20 mph along the ridges. It’s cold out there for a change and at 10,000’ temperatures are in the mid teens and still falling.

Avalanche Conditions:

AN AVALANCHE WARNING IS IN EFFECT TODAY. People without well-developed avalanche, route finding, and rescue skills should avoid travel in avalanche terrain today.

Since the beginning of the storm cycle four days ago, not only have we received a lot of snow, but the winds have been nuking as well. Average wind speeds have been in the 30’s and 40’s and gusts in the 60’s and 70’s have been a common event. These kinds of wind speeds move a tremendous amount of snow around, forming hard, dense slabs at just about every elevation. What’s going to be tricky today is the new snow we received last night came in with very little wind. So it’s covering up all the slabs that have formed the past few days making them hard to detect. However, I’d expect slabs would’ve formed not only along the leeward side of ridges, but in some unusual places as well. I’d be suspect of terrain features such as chutes, gullies, and mid slope breakovers. Avalanches may be a bit stubborn to trigger today but chances are, if you do trigger one, it’s going to be big, scary, and quite possibly deadly. Even if you’re playing on low angle terrain be aware of steep slopes above and adjacent to you.

Watching your slope angles and following safe travel techniques are the keys to staying alive today. Only put one person on the slope at a time, always keep an eye on your partner, and get out of the way and into a safe location at the bottom of the slope. Remember to carry all the necessary safety gear. Everyone needs to be wearing avalanche beacons, shovels, and probes.

Bottom Line:

The avalanche danger is HIGH today at and above treeline, on all slopes steeper than about 35 degrees. A HIGH avalanche danger means both human triggered and natural avalanches are likely. You should stay off of and out from under slopes of about 35 degrees and steeper.

At lower elevations the avalanche danger is MODERATE today on slopes steeper than about 35 degrees with recent deposits of wind drifted snow. Human triggered avalanches are possible.

Mountain Weather:

The storm is starting to wind down, but one last gasp of energy should keep showers going until about midday. We might see another 2”-5” before it’s all said and done. Today will be cooler with highs at 8,000’ in the mid 20’s and at 10,000’ in the upper teens. Overnight lows will be near 10 degrees. Winds should remain out of the west and southwest blowing 15-25 mph along the ridges and should start to mellow out tonight and Sunday, though they never completely die off. It looks like another storm will begin moving into the region late Sunday afternoon into Monday.

General Information:

We’re interested in what you’re seeing especially if you observe or trigger an avalanche. Call 1-800-662-4140, or 801-231-2170, or email to uac@avalanche.org or fax to 801-524-6301 and fill us in with all the details.

If you’d like to schedule a free snowmobile specific avalanche talk and or a field day, please call 801-231-2170.

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. I will update this advisory by 7:30 a.m. on Sunday Jan. 2, 2005.

Thanks for calling!