Our sled 101 class practices strategic shoveling in the image above.
Wow.... yesterday we were surrounded by a great crew of riders who took time out of their busy lives and attended our Sled Specific Moto Avy 101 class. Cheers to this group for taking the initiative to learn a solid avy awareness skill set that allows them to enjoy the greatest snow on earth... safely! Also, a big shout out to
The Edge Powersports and
Park City Powder Cats for hosting and to Tyler St. Jeor and his most excellent team from
Backcountry Institute for their to notch instruction. Y'all rock and I deeply appreciate all your efforts to support this life saving program.
Currently-
A weak cold front slid through the region late yesterday, delivering a couple flakes and allowing cold air to filter into the range. Currently, under partly cloudy skies, temperatures are in the single digits and northeast winds blow 10-20 mph along the high ridges. Riding and turning conditions are excellent right now with wind sheltered, mid elevation terrain offering cold, creamy, carvy snow.... along with a little alliteration :)
Uinta weather network info is found here. Simply click on the Western Uinta tab.
For today-
A northeast flow prevails producing partly cloudy skies and colder temperatures with high reaching into the low 20's. Northeast winds blow 10-20 mph along the high peaks.
Futurecast-
Cold temperatures and little prospect of measurable snow is the rule heading into the work week.
With a little coercing the avalanche in the image above initially started as a well connected, fresh wind drift, but then quickly broke into weak snow near the ground. This is a repeater, having already slid several times this year. Triggered on an east facing slope in the wind zone, this slide averaged 2' deep, was 250' wide, and ran 800' vertically... hard to trigger, but could easily ruin your day.
And above Rhoads Lake in the Smith-Moorehouse zone, Chad Brackelsberg watched a sledder trigger a significant piece of snow and noted.... "We were on a peak about 1.5 miles north and saw high mark tracks on the slope with fairly large avalanche at the tracks. The crown was clearly visible from the distance and it was at least 100' wide and ran into the trees below." Details are found
here.
To view additional trip reports and recent avalanche activity, simply click
here.