UDOT PLANNED AVALANCHE CLOSURES!!

Forecast for the Uintas Area Mountains

Craig Gordon
Issued by Craig Gordon for
Sunday, April 3, 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
Learn how to read the forecast here
Special Announcements
I'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-
A dry, cool front slides through the area this morning ushering in high clouds and knocking temperatures into the mid 20's, down a few degrees from yesterday at this time. Winds shifted to the west and northwest right around midnight and have mellowed somewhat, blowing 10-20 mph near the high peaks. The midweek storm snow finally took on heat yesterday even in the high country. But switch your aspect, head for the mid elevation sunny slopes, and you'll be rewarded with a solid corn harvest.
FORECAST-
Clouds thin out and we should see partly cloudy skies as the day progresses. Westerly winds blow 15-25 mph near the high peaks and temperatures climb into the low 40's. Clear skies allow overnight lows to dip into the 20's.
FUTURECAST-
Winds increase Monday as the next storm system impacts our region late in the day into Tuesday. It'll be on the warm side and that means snow levels are high for the beginning of the system. Not a big storm, but enough for a quick 3"-6" reset with clearing skies set for midweek. High pressure builds to round out the work week.

This is the time of year the Uinta's shine. The UAC crew is getting after it, finding excellent cold, shallow, cream on a very supportable base and the opportunity to start spinning laps and stacking trax... 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 Friday 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 Monday, April 4th.
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.