UDOT PLANNED AVALANCHE CLOSURES!!

Forecast for the Uintas Area Mountains

Craig Gordon
Issued by Craig Gordon for
Saturday, April 2, 2022
With a solid spring snowpack and generally LOW avalanche danger across the board, it's time to stretch your wings and slowly step into big terrain. Remember... even with green light conditions, grab some solid snow beta before pulling the trigger on sustained steep slopes or steep, rocky, technically committing terrain.
Low
Moderate
Considerable
High
Extreme
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Special Announcements
We'd like to thank our incredible community for your support of the 2022 Spring Campaign. We raised $75,000 in two weeks to help grow our avalanche forecasting program. Thank You!
Weather and Snow
NOWCAST-
Under clear skies, a southwest flow developed overnight and temperatures remained mild, currently registering in the mid 20's, or about 10 degrees warmer than yesterday at this time. Southwest winds bounce between 20 and 25 mph along the high ridges. Riding and turning conditions are excellent as the midweek storm delivered 6"-8" of snow, providing a nice coat of white paint and a much needed refresh.
FORECAST-
Look for partly cloudy skies with temperatures climbing into the mid 40's. Southwest winds bump into the 30's and switch to west and eventually northwest as a dry, cold front slides through the area late in the day. Overnight lows dip into the low 20's.
FUTURECAST-
A mostly sunny day with slightly cooler temperatures is on tap for Sunday with a chance of storminess developing late Monday. The computer models are still attempting to get a handle on this system and I'll have a better idea of strength and timing for tomorrows update.

This is the time of year the time of year the Uinta's shine. Bo, Andy, and I found excellent cold, shallow, cream on a very supportable base... travel is seamless and the livin' is easy :)
Trip reports and snowpack observations are found HERE.

Looking for real-time temps, snow, or wind? Click HERE and then on the "western Uinta" tab for western Uinta specific, weather station network.
Recent Avalanches
We spotted this interesting pocket yesterday which was most likely triggered a few days ago. It looks like a damp piece of snow dribbled from the steep rock band, crashed onto the slope below, and broke to the Jan/Feb weak layer.
No other significant avalanches to report.
An archive of recent slides is found HERE.

Your input is vital and we're interested in what you're seeing. Please contribute to this great community resource and go here to fill out an observation.
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Avalanche Problem #1
Persistent Weak Layer
Type
Location
Likelihood
Size
Description
It's spring... the fight between winter and summer and we've seen the full meal deal of weather conditions and that means the snowpack's been all over the map. From warm to warmer and then downright hot, the snow surface turned damp and unsupportable. But just like a superhero, the mid week storm and much colder air saved us in the nick of time, allowing the pack to knit together, tighten up, become stronger, and it's returned to its happy place. In essence, the persistent weak layer or PWL has gained strength and hardness and the snow above it is solidly refrozen. The good news is... this increased strength makes it pretty unlikely that you can trigger an avalanche that breaks around our now dormant problem child the PWL.
Additional Information
AVALANCHE TERRAIN:
Slope angle determines where avalanches can happen and where they can't. Generally, any slope steeper than 30 degrees is where avalanches occur. This means all you need to do is ride slopes less than 30 degrees in steepness and you'll never have to deal with avalanches.
There's a catch! You can't be underneath slopes steeper than 30 degrees either, even if you're on a flat slope, because avalanches can crash down on you. It turns out that skiing or riding slopes about 25 degrees in steepness is really fun and even more fun because there's no worry of avalanches. Unfortunately, it takes a lot of practice to estimate slope angles with your eyes alone. The way to get practice and the only way to know for sure is to measure slope angles with slope measuring tool shown in the photo below, and Toby describes it in this video. There are also many apps so that you can use your phone in a similar manner.

Your observations are important, so please let me know what you're seeing... click HERE and contribute to this amazing community based program
General Announcements
The information in this forecast expires 24 hours after the day and time posted, but will be updated by 07:00 Sunday, April 3rd.
Before it gets too crazy, now is the time to book an avalanche awareness presentation for your group, club, or posse. You can reach me directly at 801-231-2170 or [email protected]
This forecast is from the U.S.D.A. Forest Service, which is solely responsible for its content. This forecast describes general avalanche conditions and local variations always occur.