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

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, February 22, 2004 and it’s 7:30 a.m.

Current conditions:

Under mostly cloudy skies light snow is falling and current 10,000’ temperatures are in the upper teens. Winds are light and southerly blowing at speeds of 5-15 mph. In the past 24 hours we’ve received 3” of new snow above 9,000’ and a trace at the trailheads. Last weeks winds have damaged the more exposed upper elevation terrain and the south facing slopes are quite challenging with dust on top of a breakable crust. However, sheltered, shady slopes at both mid and upper elevations still harbor fine riding and turning conditions.

Avalanche Conditions:

The soft slabs created at the upper elevations from Thursday’s storm remained sensitive yesterday and a number of backcountry enthusiasts were able to trigger small avalanches throughout the range. The North Slope seemed to be the most active, as this part of the region had received a little more snow and wind. While pockety in nature, these slides were averaging about a foot in depth and were confined to heavily wind-loaded, leeward terrain, above 9,500’ in elevation. Yesterday’s southerly winds added to the equation, further loading leeward slopes at the upper elevations. Today I think you’ll find these wind drifts to be a little bit deeper and they have the possibility of breaking out wider than you might expect. If your travels take you into upper elevation terrain today be on the lookout for and avoid any steep slope that has recent deposits of wind-drifted snow. There are plenty of hard, slick bed-surfaces for avalanches to run on and even a small avalanche could take you for a fast body-beating ride.

On steep, wind sheltered slopes the surface snow is sluffing easily and entraining quite a bit of snow as it descends the slope. Take care that one doesn’t take you for an unplanned ride into a group of trees or over a cliff band. Or worse yet, bury you in a terrain trap such as a gully.

Bottom Line:

The avalanche danger is MODERATE today, at and above timberline, on northwest through east facing slopes steeper than about 35 degrees, especially those with recent deposits of wind drifted snow. Human triggered avalanches are possible.

At low and mid elevations and in wind-protected terrain on slopes less steep than 35 degrees the avalanche danger is generally LOW.

Mountain Weather:

A weak weather disturbance in the moist southerly flow will nose into the region today giving us cloudy skies and a continued chance of light snow showers. While snow totals will be on the light side, we should be able to pick up another 1”-3” of snow today. Highs temperatures at 10,000’ will be in the low 20’s and at 8,000’ near 30 degrees. Overnight lows will dip into the upper teens. Winds will be light and out of the south, at speeds of 5-15 mph with an occasional gust in the low 20’s at the more exposed ridgeline locations. Monday and Tuesday look similar in the weather department with mostly cloudy skies and a chance of snow each day. On Wednesday we can expect clearing skies and increasing southwest winds ahead of a strong Pacific storm, which is still on track to move into the region Thursday. Right now this storm looks like a good snow producer and I’ll have a better handle as to the strength and timing of this system for Wednesday’s advisory.

General Information:

We can always use snow and avalanche information and your snowpack and avalanche observations could help to save someone’s life. If you see or trigger an avalanche give us a call at 801-231-2170 or 1-800-662-4140.

Also, if you’d like to schedule a free avalanche awareness talk and/or field day give us a call at 801-524-5304.

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 Wednesday, Feb.25, 2004.

Thanks for calling.