Wasatch Cache and Uinta National Forests

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

Tri-City Performance, Polaris, the Utah Snowmobile Association, the National Weather Service, BRORA, and Backcountry Access.

holiday Avalanche ADVISORY

monDAY january 1, 2007

The information in this advisory expires 24 hours after the date and time it’s issued, but will be updated with on Wednesday January 3, 2007.

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 Monday, January 1, 2007 and it’s about 7:00 in the morning. Avalanche advisories for the western Uinta’s are available on Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday and all holidays and are brought to you in partnership with Utah State Parks and Recreation.

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 801-231-2170, or email at cgordonski@hotmail.com and fill me in with all the details.

I’d like to thank our longtime partner Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort for hosting Friday night’s amazing fundraising dinner and film producer David Breashears for sharing his spectacular new Everest Expedition film. A portion of the proceeds will help the avalanche center. Speaking of fundraisers…come join us for a star studded fundraising ride on Saturday Jan. 27^th. Click here for more details or call 801-963-3819.

Current Conditions:

What a way to ring in the New Year! A weak cold front raced through the region last night laying down the first storm of 2007 with a whopping inch of new snow in favored locations. Winds are light, out of the west-northwest, blowing 5-15 mph even along the highest ridges. Skies are partly cloudy and temperatures near 20 degrees at both trailhead and mountain top locations. Last night’s new snow isn’t going to improve the riding and turning conditions much, but as they say “even a bad day of riding is better than a good day at work”.

Avalanche Conditions:

The string of human triggered avalanches has calmed down for the moment and I haven’t heard of or seen any recent avalanche activity for two days. Other than a few isolated, rogue wind drifts up high, the possibility of triggering a slide is getting more remote with time. However, there are still places you could trigger a pocket that has the potential to knock you off your machine, skis or board and slam you into a group of trees or carry you over a cliff. Now there’s a crummy way to start off the New Year! The most likely place to find an old hard slab will be on steep, wind loaded upper elevation slopes, facing the north half of the compass. If your travels take you into increasingly steep terrain today, avoid any fat looking wind drifts and think about the consequences of getting caught in a slide.

Bottom Line:

On most slopes throughout the range, especially at mid and lower elevations and in wind sheltered terrain, the avalanche danger is generally LOW today and human triggered avalanches are unlikely.

In upper elevation terrain at and above tree line there are isolated pockets of MODERATE avalanche danger today on slopes steeper than about 35 degrees, especially those with both old and recent deposits of wind drifted snow. A MODERATE avalanche danger means human triggered avalanches are possible.

Mountain Weather:

High pressure again takes hold of the weather pattern through late this week. Partly cloudy skies, light winds and warming temperatures are slated for the region the next few days. Highs at 8,000’ will be near 30 degrees and at 10,000’ in the mid 20’s. Overnight lows under clear skies dip into the low teens. By Thursday day time highs reach into the low 40’s, then a strong fast moving cold front slides into the area late Thursday with a good shot of snow expected. I’ll have more details on my midweek Wednesday update.

Announcements:

Come join us for a star studded fundraising ride on Saturday Jan. 27^th. Click here for more details.

I want to thank the crew at Tri-City Performance in Springville along with Polaris and the Utah Snowmobile Association for partnering with the avalanche center and stepping up to the plate by providing a new sled for this season! Click here, to see the new ride!

Free avalanche awareness classes are available. Give me a call at 801-231-2170 or email cgordonski@hotmail.com and get one scheduled before the season gets too crazy!

 
If any terms confuse you, take a look at our new avalanche encyclopedia.

For avalanche photos click here.

General Information:

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 am on Wednesday January 3, 2007.

This advisory is also available by calling 1-800-648-7433 or

1-888-999-4019.

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