Wasatch
Cache and Uinta National
Forests 
In partnership with:
Tri-City Performance, Polaris, the
Avalanche ADVISORY
wednesDAY
february 21, 2007
The information in this advisory expires 24 hours after
the date and time it’s issued, but will be updated
Good Morning! This is Craig
Gordon with the
This
advisory covers the terrain from Daniels Summit, to
Current Conditions:
A westerly flow over the
region has winds howling along the high ridges this morning with hourly
averages in the mid to upper 30’s with gusts near 50 mph. Skies are clear and
temperatures are in the low to mid 20’s. Monday’s quick hitting system
deposited 6”-10” of snow across the range with the
Avalanche Conditions:
I completed a
preliminary investigation on the avalanche accident that occurred on Saturday
Feb.17th in
It’s been an
active avalanche week throughout much of the state and we’re not out of the
woods yet. While the snowpack is starting to adjust to last weeks storms, the fact
that human triggered avalanches are still occurring tells me our snowpack needs
more time before we can feel confident getting on steep slopes.
Today we have
three avalanche concerns to deal with. The most obvious is the recently wind
loaded slopes from the strong winds overnight. There’s plenty of snow available
to blow around and the winds are building fresh wind drifts on slopes facing
the north half of the compass. That’s pretty straight forward… here’s the
tricky part. Our persistent buried weakness, the sugary facets that formed
during the January drought, are now hidden several feet beneath strong feeling
snow, giving us a false sense of security, allowing riders to get well out onto
the slope before it fails. What makes the avalanche conditions so complicated
right now is you can ride a steep slope a number of times and not trigger an
avalanche, but if you’re the unlucky one who finds a weak spot in the snowpack,
you’ll be looking down the barrel of a dangerous, unmanageable avalanche which
breaks above, rather than below you. Even shallow avalanches triggered within
the new wind drifts today have the possibility of breaking into deeper buried weak
layers as they trundle down onto the slope below. Your best defensive measure
is to tone your slope angles down and think about the consequences of
triggering a slide.
The third
avalanche problem will be wet avalanches on steep sunny slopes as the day heats
up. The sun is high in the sky these days, so as temperatures increase you’ll
want to stay off of and out from under steep sun exposed slopes and avoid
terrain traps such as gullies and road cuts.
Bottom Line:
In mid and upper elevation terrain, at and above
tree line the avalanche danger is CONSIDERABLE today on all slopes steeper than about 35 degrees with
both old and recent deposits of wind drifted snow. A CONSIDERABLE avalanche danger
means human triggered avalanches are probable and natural avalanches are
possible.
At low elevations the
avalanche danger is MODERATE on recently
wind loaded slopes and human triggered avalanches are possible.
At all elevations the danger
of wet avalanches will increase to MODERATE on steep sun
exposed slopes with daytime heating.
Mountain Weather:
The
strong westerly winds this morning should subside in the next few hours,
backing off into the 20’s and 30’s along the high ridges, before southwest
winds increase tonight and Thursday, with gusts in the 60’s and 70’s expected.
It’ll be a beautiful day in the mountains today with mostly sunny skies and
high temperatures at 10,000’ in the upper 20’s, at 8,000’ near 35 degrees. Overnight
lows will be in the mid 20’s. Thursday will be warm and very windy as the flow
shifts to the southwest, ushering in a cold moist system that should impact the
region right around sunrise Friday. Snow should be heavy at times throughout
the day with a foot of snow forecast by Saturday morning.
Announcements:
We finally got the
I’d like to thank Jim Shea, The Canyons and Colleen
Graham from the Friends of the UAC for all their hard work in making the Know Before You Go fundraiser such a success!
The first annual western Uinta fundraising ride was
an amazing success with nearly 150 people showing up for the ride alone!
I want to thank the Jim Shea Family Foundation,
Rocky Mountain Sledders, the Wasatch Snowmobile Association and the Utah
Snowmobile Association for all their tireless work in putting the event
together. Thanks again to Team Thunderstruck and the Boondockers
crew for helping out and schooling even the most experienced riders. Also, we
couldn’t have pulled it off if it weren’t for Chad Booth who did an incredible
job as both master of ceremonies and auctioneer. Finally, it wouldn’t have been
possible without the support of everyone who attended… you folks are
awesome!
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!
We installed Beacon Basin at the Noblett’s
Trailhead and it’s good to go. I want to thank Doug, Bill, Jared, Brad and
Wally who
unselfishly took time out of their powder day to
help out the riding community… you guys rock!
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
This advisory is
also available by calling 1-800-648-7433 or
1-888-999-4019.
.