Avalanche Warning
THE FOREST SERVICE UTAH AVALANCHE CENTER HAS CONTINUED THE BACKCOUNTRY AVALANCHE WARNING.
* TIMING...NOW THROUGH 6AM MST THURSDAY
* AFFECTED AREA...FOR WESTERN UINTA MOUNTAINS.
* AVALANCHE DANGER...THE AVALANCHE DANGER FOR THE WARNING AREA IS HIGH.
* REASON/IMPACTS...RAIN, HEAVY SNOWFALL, AND STRONG WINDS ARE CREATING UNSTABLE SNOW AT ALL ELEVATIONS. VERY DANGEROUS AVALANCHE CONDITIONS EXIST, NATURAL AVALANCHES ARE LIKELY. STAY OFF OF AND OUT FROM UNDER SLOPES STEEPER THAN 30 DEGREES. AVOID AVALANCHE RUN OUT ZONES.
THIS WARNING DOES NOT APPLY TO SKI AREAS WHERE AVALANCHE HAZARD REDUCTION MEASURES ARE PERFORMED.
We still have a few slots open for this weeks Sled Specific Avy Awareness and Riding Skills Class. More details here.
Do you buy groceries at Smiths? When you register your Smith’s rewards card with their Community Rewards program, they will donate to the Utah Avalanche Center whenever you make a purchase. It's easy, only takes a minute, and doesn't cost you anything. Details here.
Skies cleared overnight and temperatures are just starting to fall, but still register in the 20's and mid 30's. Yesterday's storm was a little slow out of the gates, but finally materialized for the eastern front and the southern half of the range got stomped on! From Trial Lake to Daniels 12"-16" of dense, heavy snow stacked up... the North Slope clocked in closer to 10". In either case, westerly winds didn't discriminate, they nuked in the 60's and 70's along the high ridges.
Above... 24 hour data from Windy Peak and Trial Lake
Real time wind, snow, and temperatures for the Uinta's are found here
Ted was in Gold Hill Basin yesterday and found very touchy fresh drifts along the ridges, but excellent riding conditions in low elevation, wind sheltered terrain. Snowpack observations and trip reports are found here.
Very tender cornices and super touchy soft slabs rapidly formed on mid and upper elevation leeward slopes.
A full list of Uinta avalanche activity is found here.