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Forecast for the Uintas Area Mountains

Craig Gordon
Issued by Craig Gordon on
Friday morning, March 4, 2016

While the avalanche danger is generally LOW, pockets of MODERATE avalanche danger exist on steep, upper elevation, leeward slopes, especially those facing the north half of the compass. Remember- any avalanche that fails on weak, sugary snow near the ground, has the potential to break deeper and wider than you might expect.

Low
Moderate
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High
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Special Announcements

The Utah Avalanche Center greatly values in longtime partnership with our world-class resorts and is blowing out the remaining donated lift tickets from Alta, Snowbird, Snowbasin, Sundance, and Nordic Valley with reduced prices. Every penny you spend and turn you make benefits the Utah Avalanche Center.

Check out our Garage Sale! Chock full of sweet backcountry gear - you can find the goods on our Facebook page here.

Weather and Snow

Skies are partly cloudy, temperatures in the low to mid 30's, and southwest winds are blowing 20-30 mph along the high peaks. Despite the lack of any significant new snow, riding and turning conditions remain quite good. Billiard table smoothness is found on south facing terrain and on the other side of the compass, soft, creamy powder. The snowpack received a shallow refreeze, so if you're after supportable corn... get after it early today, as it may not have quite the longevity of yesterday's harvest.

Uinta weather station network info is found here.

Trip reports and observations are found here.

Recent Avalanches

No new avalanche activity to report.

Recent avalanche observations are found here

See or trigger an avalanche? Shooting cracks? Hear a collapse? It's simple. Go here to fill out an observation.

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Avalanche Problem #1
Persistent Weak Layer
Type
Location
Likelihood
Size
Description

Most of our wind drift issues seem pretty well behaved and predictable. Of course, if you're getting into steep, unforgiving, radical terrain remember- even a small slide can knock you off your feet or sled and take you for a fast, body bruising ride into trees or over a cliff band. Found on steep, leeward slopes in the wind zone, above treeline, today's shallow slabs are easy to detect by their fat, rounded appearance and easy to avoid. Simply lose a little elevation and you'll lose the problem.

Ted found this shallow slab in the wind zone around Bald Mountain yesterday.

Less predictable, is any slide that fails on weak, sugary snow near the ground, or what we call persistent slabs. Remember- persistent slabs have the potential to break deeper and wider than you might expect. Steep, rocky terrain facing the north half of the compass and particularly slopes that avalanched near the ground earlier this season should be considered suspect.

Breaking deeper and certainly less predictable, is any avalanche that fails on weak snow near the ground like this sled triggered slab in Gold Hill Basin last week.

Additional Information

A weak system sliding north of the region allows a few clouds and a couple flurries to drift through the area, otherwise it'll be another beautiful day in the mountains. Highs reach into the mid 40's with overnight lows near freezing. Westerly winds blow in the 15-25 mph range along the high peaks, before switching to the southwest and increasing on Saturday, ahead of a moist system slated to impact the region late in the weekend. Colder, unsettled weather is on tap for Sunday and it looks like 5"-10" of new snow by Monday morning is a good bet.

General Announcements

Remember your information can save lives. If you see anything we should know about, please participate in the creation of our own community avalanche advisory by submitting snow and avalanche conditions. You can call me directly at 801-231-2170, email [email protected], or email by clicking HERE If Craig is unavailable you can reach his partner Trent at 801-455-7239, email [email protected]

This is a great time of year to schedule a free avalanche awareness presentation for your group or club. You can contact me at 801-231-2170 or email [email protected]. To register for the first in our series of on-the-snow sled specific classes you can register here.

The information in this advisory is from the US Forest Service which is solely responsible for its content. This advisory describes general avalanche conditions and local variations always occur.

The information in this advisory expires 24 hours after the date and time posted, but will be updated by 7:00 AM on Saturday, March 5th.

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