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Forecast for the Uintas Area Mountains

Craig Gordon
Issued by Craig Gordon on
Thursday morning, January 2, 2020
Heads up... winds have been all over the place
At upper elevations in the wind zone, on all aspects of the compass, a CONSIDERABLE avalanche danger exists. Human triggered avalanches are PROBABLE, especially on steep, wind drifted slopes, and particularly in terrain with an easterly component to its aspect. Once initiated, a fresh wind drift may break on weak snow near the ground, creating a larger avalanche than you might expect. The danger may rise to HIGH by days end as wind speeds intensify.
Strong winds have drifted fresh snow into mid elevation terrain as well, creating a MODERATE avalanche danger. Human triggered avalanches are POSSIBLE on steep, wind drifted leeward slopes.
Today's exit strategy-
Wind sheltered, low elevation terrain and big open meadows with no steep slopes above or adjacent to where you're riding generally offers LOW avalanche danger and human triggered avalanches are unlikely.
Low
Moderate
Considerable
High
Extreme
Learn how to read the forecast here
Weather and Snow
Currently-
Yesterday's storm was a bit more huff than fluff, but a late afternoon piece of energy finally materialized and slammed into the region, rapidly stacking up 6"-9" of snow across the range. Yesterday's west and southwest winds punished the ridges nearly all day, finally switching to the northwest early this morning and now blow in the 20's and 30's along the high peaks. It'll be a bit rugged near the ridges, but lose a little elevation, head to wind sheltered terrain and you'll be rewarded with soft, surfy snow. The range has excellent early season coverage with total snow depths averaging close to 4' of settled snow.
Above is a 24 hour run from Windy Peak, clearly illustrating with speed and direction.
More Uinta weather network info is found here. Simply click on the Western Uinta tab.
For today-
Look for scattered morning snow showers, tapering off by about lunchtime, with high temperatures rising into the mid 20's. Northwest winds wreck a lot of upper elevation snow as they increase into the 50's and 60's along the high peaks as the day progresses.
Furturecast-
High pressure builds across the state Friday, followed by a couple of weather disturbances crossing northern Utah over the weekend.
Recent Avalanches
Ted was in the Gold Hill environs yesterday and found this natural avalanche in the image above, breaking to weak snow in steep, rocky terrain. His trip report and always very valuable insight is found here.
To view additional trip reports and recent avalanche activity, simply click here.
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Avalanche Problem #1
Wind Drifted Snow
Type
Location
Likelihood
Size
Description
Yesterday's strong winds had no problem whipping our recent storm snow into sensitive drifts, creating a dense, cohesive layer of snow. But here's the problem... that strong wind slab rests on top of pre-existing surface snow which was light fluffy. So we've got an upside down cake... strong snow on top of weak snow. That combo often reacts to our additional weight and that's today's main avalanche problem. What's tricky for today is, west and northwest winds are expected to increase throughout the day and that'll continue loading leeward slopes and cross-load terrain features like chutes and gullies. Of course, your best bet for avoidance is to simply steer clear of any fat, rounded piece of snow, especially if it sounds hollow like a drum. In addition, look for shooting cracks in the snow which is a sure sign of unstable conditions.
Avalanche Problem #2
Persistent Weak Layer
Type
Location
Likelihood
Size
Description
We don't trigger scary avalanches where the pack is deep... we trigger them where the pack is thin, like around a rock or bush we can't see under the snow. Yesterday, Ted dug around a shallow spot near Gold Hill and you can clearly see the problematic structure underneath the snow card in Ted's pit profile above.
In general we've got a great start to the season and our pack is looking encouragingly solid, especially where it's deep and nearing 4' of total settled snow.... so that's good news. However, the jury is still out in terrain where the pack remains thin. Sketchy terrain not only includes the usual suspects- steep, rocky, upper elevations slopes facing the north half of the compass, it now includes a few new members to the lineup and that's terrain that avalanched as a result of either the Thanksgiving or mid December storm cycles. These are characterized as "repeater" slopes. Simply implying that they've already experienced a significant avalanche.
In either case, we're dealing with a persistent weaknesses in the snowpack and anything persistent in our pack can take long periods of time to heal.
But here's the problem... now all slopes look white and older avalanche crown lines are filled in, making them hard to detect. So that means, you can ride some slopes and be good to go, while others just wait for us to roll along and knock the legs out from underneath. But wait... there's more! Once initiated, avalanches have a distinct possibility of breaking deeper and wider than you might expect.
Additional Information
Thanks to the generous support of our Utah ski resorts and Ski Utah, we have discount lift tickets available. All proceeds support the UAC. Get your tickets HERE.
Get one of these cool t-shirts to support the UAC and other avalanche centers across the U.S. INFO
General Announcements
The information in this forecast expires in 24 hours, but will be updated by 7:00 AM Friday Jan. 3rd.
This forecast is updated daily by 7:00 AM.
In the mean-time, if you see or trigger an avalanche or just wanna let me know what you're seeing you can reach me directly at 801-231-2170
It'll be a minute or two before we're riding, but while you're waiting....
This is a great time of year to schedule one of our free avy awareness presentations.
You can email me directly [email protected]
The information in this forecast is from the US Forest Service which is solely responsible for its content.
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