In partnership with:
Tri-City
Performance, Polaris, the
The information in this advisory expires 24 hours after
the date and time it’s issued, but will be updated with on Sunday January 14,
2007.
Good Morning! This is Craig
Gordon with the
This
advisory covers the terrain from Daniels Summit, to
Come join us for
a star studded fundraising ride on Saturday Jan. 27th. Click here for more details or call 801-963-3819.
We’ll be installing
and keep warm while you’re waiting for your buddy, swing on by and lend
a hand!
Current Conditions:
The stormy period the
past few days has been good to the Uinta’s and new snow totals stack up like
this- about a foot on the North Slope, 7” at Trial Lake and in terrain around
the Daniel’s area, and 5” at the trailheads. The big winner is the east side of
the range where nearly 16” of new snow fell at the upper elevations. Snow
densities averaged 3%, which is about as light as it gets around here;
unfortunately the new snow is so light you’re still feeling the rock hard
crusts and old, bone jarring tracks underneath. Low angle slopes may offer more
cushion. Even under cloudy skies current temperatures are Montana-like. At
10,000’ it’s -11 degrees and -9 degrees at the trailhead elevations. Winds are
light, less than 10 mph and generally out of the north. Even with light winds
it’ll be brutally cold today, so keep an eye on your partner for frostbite.
Avalanche Conditions:
Today’s avalanche
problems are pretty straight forward even though we’ve received a decent amount
of new snow. First off, the storm snow has very little water weight, so it’s
incredibly light in density and isn’t adding much additional stress to the snowpack.
Secondly, there was hardly any wind associated with the storm so in most
terrain there’s really no slab to speak of. However, where the winds may have
been stronger is along the highest peaks and ridges and there you’ll find
manageable soft slabs, predictably breaking around you rather than above you.
If you’re getting into steep, upper elevation terrain today, tweak small test
slopes similar is aspect, elevation and slope angle to see how they’re reacting
before committing to a big line.
In general, today’s
biggest concern is going to be new snow sluffing on steep slopes. While
relatively benign, the right combination of light snow, a steep slope and a
hard slick bed surface underneath will enable you to entrain more snow,
creating a larger sluff than you might expect. So take care that one of these
doesn’t get out of hand and take you for a ride over a cliff of bury you in a
gully. Well placed slope cuts and sluff management will be good defensive
measures in steep terrain.
Bottom Line:
In upper elevation terrain at and above tree line
the avalanche danger is MODERATE today on slopes
steeper than about 35 degrees, especially those with recent deposits of wind
drifted snow. A MODERATE avalanche danger means
human triggered avalanches are possible.
In non-wind affected terrain the avalanche danger is
generally LOW.
Mountain Weather:
Mostly
cloudy skies, light snow and cold temperatures are on tap today as a portion of
the cold trough out of
Announcements:
Come join us for a star studded fundraising ride on
Saturday Jan. 27th. 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 [email protected]
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.
.