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

SundAY december 11, 2005

This advisory expires 24 hours from the date and time posted, but will be updated by 7:30 am WEDNESday December 14, 2005.

Good morning! 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 Sunday, December 11, 2005 and it’s 7:00 a.m. Avalanche advisories for the western Uintas are available on Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday and all holidays.

This advisory covers the terrain from Daniels Summit, to Mirror Lake, to the North Slope of the western Uinta Mountains. That’s a lot of turf and I can’t be in all of these places at once. Your snow and avalanche observations are critical to this program and help to save other riders lives by getting accurate information out to the public. I’m interested in what you’re seeing especially if you see or trigger an avalanche. Please call 1-800-662-4140, or 801-231-2170, or email to uac@avalanche.org and fill us in with all the details.

Announcements:

I’ll be giving a free avalanche awareness talk designed specifically for snowmobilers on Wednesday December 14th at 6:30 pm at Mountain High Motorsports on 8262 S Redwood Rd, West Jordan.
 
The Moffit Peak weather station is back in operation. This site was made possible through generous donations
by BRORA, The Utah Snowmobile Association, and the National Weather Service. You can view data by clicking here.

For avalanche photos click here.

We’re looking for feedback on our new advisory page. Click here to check out the new “MOCK UP”. I’d like to hear what you think and you can email me at cgordonski@hotmail.com with comments and suggestions.

Current Conditions:

Valley inversions are starting to develop and there’s no better way to escape the smog and cold, than heading into the mountains. Skies are clear and current temperatures are in the low 20’s along the ridges and mid teens at the trailheads. Winds are light and northerly, blowing 10-15 mph along the high peaks. No new snow has fallen since midweek, but there’s plenty of cold settled powder out there and the riding and turning conditions are quite good, particularly on mid elevation wind protected, shady slopes. On the other side of the compass, most south facing slopes have developed a bit of a crust and are pretty tricky on skis.

Avalanche Conditions:

No new avalanches have been reported for several days now and the snowpack is becoming fairly well-behaved. People are getting after it without incident, which is a good sign, but being the skeptic that I am, I still don’t think I‘d be jumping into steep chutes or bowls just yet. In most terrain the snowpack is unreactive, sort of like a snapped rubber-band and there’s not much energy stored in it. However, I’m still leery about upper elevation, shady slopes where stronger snow overlays the weak, sugary faceted snow that developed during the November dry spell. That sugary snow is now buried about midway in our snowpack and could still be reactive to the weight of a rider. As a matter of fact, yesterday a group of riders experienced a large, booming collapse which they say echoed for several drainages and this was after they had put a number of tracks on the slope. That’ll make your ears perk up. While the chances of triggering an avalanche are getting more remote over time, I think you could still trigger a sizeable slide, especially in steep rocky terrain with a weak shallow snowpack. In addition to deeper avalanches there may be an old wind slab or two on the leeward side of upper elevation ridges that have the potential to knock you off your skis or machine. With all the rocks and stumps out there, riding in your favorite meadow or grassy slope might still be the best option anyway.

Bottom Line:

In upper elevation terrain at and above tree line the avalanche danger is MODERATE today on slopes steeper than about 35 degrees, especially those with both old and new deposits of wind drifted snow. A MODERATE danger means human triggered avalanche are possible. A remote possibility exists for avalanches triggered today to break into deeper, buried weak layers in the snowpack, particularly in steep terrain facing the north half of the compass.

The avalanche danger is generally LOW in wind sheltered terrain and on slopes less steep than 35 degrees.

Mountain Weather:

Another beautiful day is in store for us as high pressure becomes firmly entrenched over the region. Today you can expect clear skies and warming temperatures with highs at 8,000’ in the mid 30’s and at 10,000’ in the upper 20’s. Overnight lows will be around 10 degrees. Winds will be light and northerly, blowing 10-20 mph along the highest ridges. Increasing clouds will stream in on Monday and a fast moving storm is expected to move into the region for Tuesday. We’ll see colder temperatures and maybe 3”-6” of snow out of this system, though confidence is pretty low. Looks like another similar storm for later in the week.

General Information:

If you haven’t taken one of our free snowmobile specific avalanche awareness classes, schedule one now before things get too crazy. Give me a call at 801-231-2170 and I’d be happy to tailor a talk for your group. Also, once there’s enough snow, I’ll have the “Beacon Basin” training site up and running again this year at the Nobletts trailhead.

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’ll update this advisory by 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday December 14, 2005.

Thanks for calling!