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Forecast for the Uintas Area Mountains

Craig Gordon
Issued by Craig Gordon for
Tuesday, March 19, 2019
The avalanche danger is generally LOW. Both human triggered and natural avalanches are unlikely. Remember though, LOW danger doesn't mean NO danger... it's a mountain environment after-all, so be aware of changing conditions and cognizant of your terrain choices.
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Learn how to read the forecast here
Weather and Snow
Skies remained clear last night and temperatures are slightly cooler this morning than yesterday at this time, registering in the teens and low 20's. West and northwest winds are hardly noticeable, blowing just 10-15 mph along the high ridges. Sunny slopes are crusted and a bit rugged first thing out of the gates. So throw the scratchers down, hang onto your topknot, and with a little out-of-the-box thinking, you'll be rewarded with soft settled snow on high elevation, wind sheltered north facing terrain.
Above is hourly data from Trial Lake (9,945') and Windy Peak (10,662'). To view more regional weather stations click here.
You came for the views... but you should really stay for the snow.
My partner for the day, world renowned mountaineer and overall B.A., Jeff Duenwald stands by a probe buried in a deep Uinta snowpack registering 205 cm. of total snow. Yup... it's a go-anywhere-base and the Uinta's are about as fat, white, and stable as they get.
Recent Avalanches
Occurring naturally, a piece of cornice peeled off this ridgeline in upper Weber Canyon sometime late Sunday afternoon. The bus sized piece of snow crashed onto the slope below, triggering a shallow wet slab which gouged into weak snow near the ground. Of note... a repeater, the snowpack was already shallow in this zone from an avalanche triggered earlier this year.
Recent trip reports and avy activity found HERE.
Ad
Avalanche Problem #1
Normal Caution
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A couple things to keep in mind during your travels today-
While mostly manageable in size, a large loose snow sluff in steep, technical, north facing terrain could knock you off your skis, board, or sled and take you for an unexpected ride.
In addition, if you overstay your welcome on steep terrain facing the south half of the compass you have the possibility of triggering a wet sluff that may entrain more snow than you might expect. As the day wares on you'll wanna avoid deep gullies and road cuts where cement-like debris has no place to fan out and can pile up a surprisingly deep amount of wet, manky, cement-like debris. If you're feeling like an ant under a magnifying glass so is the snow. As the day heats up, simply get off of and out from under steep, sun baked slopes.
And finally don't forget-
Cornices are ginormous and may break back further than you might expect. You definitely wanna give these large, unpredictable pieces of snow a wide berth and not ruin someones day below by inadvertently knocking a boxcar size piece of snow down on them.
Additional Information
Dang... the storm dives south. But fear not.... we are left with a beautiful day. Today look for mostly sunny skies, light winds and temperatures climbing into the low to mid 30's. For the moment not much going on in the weather department. Light snow showers develop Thursday, with another system towards the weekend looking a bit more promising.
General Announcements
The information in this advisory expires 24 hours after the date and time posted, but will be updated by 7:00 AM Wednesday March 20th, 2019.
If you're getting out and about, please let me know what you're seeing especially if you see or trigger and avalanche. I can be reached at [email protected] or 801-231-2170
It's also a good time to set up one of our very popular avalanche awareness classes. Reach out to me and I'll make it happen.
This information does not apply to developed ski areas or highways where avalanche control is normally done. This advisory is from the U.S.D.A. Forest Service, which is solely responsible for its content. This advisory describes general avalanche conditions and local variations always occur.