Wasatch Cache and Uinta National Forests

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

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

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Avalanche advisory

wednesdAY february 15, 2006

This advisory expires 24 hours from the date and time posted, but will be updated by 7:30 am saturday february 18, 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 February 15, 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 [email protected] and fill us in with all the details.

Announcements:

“Beacon Basin” is good to go and ready to use at the Noblett’s Trailhead. While you’re waiting for your partners 
to gear up, swing by and test your avalanche beacon skills. It’s free and easily accessible from the parking lot. A big thanks 
goes out to members of the Utah Snowmobile Association for assisting in the installation and to Backcountry Access for 
providing all the gear. 
 
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 the Utah Avalanche Center’s western Uinta avalanche forecasting 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:

The big headline this morning is the winds. South and southwest winds have been cranking since about midnight with hourly averages in the 20’s and gusts in the 40’s and 50’s at the highest, most wind exposed locations. Unfortunately, winds are even getting into traditionally sheltered terrain at the mid and lower elevations. There is a snow advisory issued for our mountains, but right now the storm is over the Ogden area and is slowly drifting south. We should see snow start to develop later this morning with 6” expected during the day. Currently, temperatures are in the mid 20’s at 8,000’ and just about 16 degrees at 11,000’. The riding and turning conditions are a mixed bag and it might be better to have that extra cup o’ coffee this morning and wait till the snow starts to stack up, adding some cushion to the old, hard surface snow.

Avalanche Conditions:

After a relatively quiet week, avalanche conditions will be changing today and you’ll need to be on your toes especially later in the day if the snow starts to pile up as forecast. The avalanche picture isn’t all that straight forward, so here are some things to look out for today. First, there are the old hard slabs that were formed during the wind events of last week. While most of them are getting a little tired and unresponsive, there may still be a slab or two out there that could still be sensitive to the additional weight of a backcountry rider. The most likely place to find these is on leeward slopes at the upper elevations. Next, are the new wind drifts that formed overnight and due to the strength of the winds, these will be more widespread. I’d suspect drifting will be much further down slope than usual and cross-loading would’ve occurred around terrain features such as chutes, gullies and sub-ridges. Finally, as the snow starts to stack up today it’s going to complicate the pattern because both the new and old wind drifts will be getting covered over, making them hard to detect. Wind drifts will be forming in some unusual locations and your best bet to avoid avalanches today is to steer clear of any steep slope with both old and recent deposits of wind drifted snow.

Bottom Line:

The avalanche danger is MODERATE today at all elevations on any slope steeper than about 35 degrees with both old and recent deposits of wind drifted snow. A MODERATE avalanche danger means human triggered avalanche are possible.

Mountain Weather:

A cold winter storm is poised to affect the area through Thursday. We should see a pretty good shot of snow beginning to develop later today, continuing throughout the overnight hours. By morning snow totals could be close to a foot. Winds will be strong today, out of the southwest, blowing 20-30 mph with higher gusts expected along the exposed upper elevation ridges and peaks. We’ve probably seen the high temperatures for the day and they’ll begin to crash after the cold front arrives around sunset. Overnight lows will be near -5 degrees at 8,000’. A cold unsettled pattern should continue on Thursday with scattered snow showers and an additional inch or two of snow. A break in the action is expected Friday and Saturday with another system sliding through sometime 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.

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 February 18, 2006.

Thanks for calling!