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

wednesdAY january 4, 2006

This advisory expires 24 hours from the date and time posted, but will be updated by 7:30 am saturday january 7, 2006.

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 Wednesday, January 4, 2006 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:

A special thanks to Tri-City Performance, Polaris and The Utah Snowmobile Association for stepping up to the plate and partnering
to provide a new sled for this program. 
 
The Moffit Peak weather station is up and running. 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.

Current Conditions:

A weak storm system in a northwest flow is moving across the area, bringing light snow showers to the region. Currently at 8,000’ it’s in the low 20’s and at 11,000’ in the mid teens. Winds are northwesterly, blowing 10-20 mph along the ridges. The last gasp from yesterday’s storm system deposited another 6” of snow, bringing storm totals in the past week to just over 5’ with nearly 6” of water. Traveling around is becoming less of a Herculean event and yesterday folks were finding excellent riding and turning conditions on wind sheltered shady slopes.

Avalanche Conditions:

I’ve allowed the avalanche warning to expire, but that doesn’t mean we’re out of the woods quite yet. While natural avalanche activity has tapered off, the fact of the matter is, a tremendous amount of weight has been added to our snowpack in the past week and it’s going to take a little time to adjust. Slopes that didn’t avalanche naturally are still hanging in the balance, and just need a good thump to get them going. Why play with a loaded gun if you don’t have to? The best bet right now to avoid avalanches is to stick with lower angle slopes where there’s nothing steep above you and give the snowpack some time to heal. The stability picture will become more complex as the snowpack starts to gain strength. While avalanches may be harder to trigger, they have the potential to be very large and dangerous. In terrain where the snowpack has a variety of underlying weaknesses, avalanches have the potential to step down into deeper buried weak layers. I’d be suspect of steep, upper elevation shady slopes, facing the north half of the compass. Test lots of small slopes with little consequence, similar to what you want to ride on and see how those are reacting before committing to a big line.

Bottom Line:

At upper elevations, at and above tree-line, the avalanche danger is CONSIDERABLE today on slopes steeper than about 35 degrees, especially those with recent deposits of wind drifted snow facing the north half of the compass. A CONSIDERABLE avalanche danger means human triggered avalanches are probable, natural avalanche possible.

At mid elevations the avalanche danger is MODERATE today on all slopes steeper than about 35 degrees with recent wind drifts. A MODERATE avalanche danger means human triggered avalanches are possible.

Mountain Weather:

Snow showers this morning should begin to taper off and we’re looking at total accumulations in the 2”-4” range. Skies will clear by around early afternoon and temperatures will be a little cooler than the past few days. Highs at 8,000’ will be in the low to mid 20’s and at 10,000’ in the upper teens. Overnight lows, under partly cloudy skies will be near 10 degrees. Winds will be out of the west and northwest at speeds of 15-25 mph with an occasional higher gust along the most exposed mountaintop locations. High pressure builds for Thursday and Friday and we should see a strong warming trend. Highs on Thursday will be in the low 30’s and on Friday near 40 degrees. Another weak storm should move into the area on Saturday, followed by a stronger, wetter system Sunday.

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.

I’m hoping to have the “Beacon Basin” training site up and running this Saturday Jan.7th 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.

This advisory expires 24 hours from the date and time posted, but will be updated by 7:30 am on Saturday January 7, 2006.

Thanks for calling!