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Forecast for the Uintas Area Mountains

Craig Gordon
Issued by Craig Gordon on
Friday morning, January 3, 2020
At upper elevations in the wind zone, 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.
Not as widespread, you'll find fresh drifts reactive to our additional weight in mid elevation terrain as well, where a MODERATE avalanche danger exists. 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-
A few lingering snow showers overnight added a layer of light fluff to Wednesday's 9" storm totals, but just like Elvis, the storm has moved on and left the stadium. Meanwhile, back on the eastern front, skies are partly cloudy and temperatures register in the teens. West and southwest winds bumped into the 20's and 30's late Thursday, but began tapering off right around midnight and currently blow 15-25 mph along the high ridges. There's a bit of wind damage in high alpine terrain, 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.
Uinta weather network info is found here. Simply click on the Western Uinta tab.
For today-
Skies clear and it'll be a stunning day in the mountains with high temperatures climbing into the low 30's. Winds switch to the northwest and increase into the 30's and 40's as the day progresses.
Furturecast-
Weak storms brush by the region both Saturday and Sunday, though new snow accumulations look nominal. After a quiet start to the work week, a more active weather pattern returns late next week.
Recent Avalanches
I was in the ping pong ball and couldn't see any avalanche activity yesterday, but Ted was in the Gold Hill environs Wednesday just as the storm was developing 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
Pretty easy to see in the image above... winds have blown from the right to left (windward side to leeward side). The leeward side of the slope is where we're gonna trigger an avalanche today.
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 stronger layer rests on top of pre-existing surface snow which was light and fluffy. So we've got an upside down cake... strong snow on top of weak snow. This combo often reacts to our additional weight and it's today's main avalanche problem. Found mostly on upper elevation leeward slopes, terrain features like chutes and gullies are cross-loaded as well. 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 Saturday Jan. 4th.
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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