Large and Natural human triggered avalanches continue across the Western Uinta mountains. It's still pretty simple! We have very strong snow on top of very weak snow. Unfortunate this ugly set up isn't going away any time soon. A brief explanation below.
Early season snow grew very weak and sugary (faceted) and now we have loaded up the weak snow at the ground with dense, heavy wind driven snow. As a result the sugary faceted snow is no match for the heavy snow on top.
To give you an idea of how this works, imagine stacking Champagne glasses on table - then we put a piece of glass over the top of all the Champagne glasses. Next we stack brick by brick on top of the glass. It wont take much time before all the Champagne glasses fail catastrophically. Now, picture this same set up on a 38 degree slope in the backcountry. The Champagne glasses are the weak layer (sugary faceted snow) and the bricks are the heavy new wind driven snow (the slab). All you need to do is add the additional weight of a rider to the slope and the whole mountain will shatter like a paine of glass sending all the bricks down on top of you.
Photo - Champagne Glasses (weak layer analogy)
Photo - Actual sugary faceted snow on the ground (champagne glasses)
If you are caught in one of these monsters the best case senerio is you're buried under feet of bone crushing snow. Worst case senario is you're beatened to death by the trauma of this type of avalanche. Fact is.... conditions remain very scary throughout the range.
Photo - Consequence of the avalanche (1/4 are killed from trauma) Photo - Size of the avalanches (stacked bricks on champagne glasses)
This doesn't mean you can't ride. What it does mean, is we need to avoid avalanche terrain all together. Simply stick to slopes under 30 deg in slope steepness with no steeper slopes above or adjacent to where you're riding. Simple terrain will allow you success to come back home tonight. Simple means - flat meadows and very low angle trees.