Wasatch Cache and Uinta National Forests

In partnership with: Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center, The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center and Utah State Parks.

Avalanche advisory

Saturday, March 8, 2003

Good Morning. This is Craig Gordon with the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center with your avalanche and mountain weather advisory for the western Uinta Mountains including but not limited to the terrain surrounding Chalk Creek, Smith-Moorehouse, the Mirror Lake Highway, and Woodland.

This advisory is made possible through a generous grant provided by Utah State Parks and will be available for the rest of the winter on weekends and holidays.

Today is Saturday, March 8, 2003, and it’s 7:30 in the morning.

Current Conditions:

Westerly winds continue to howl along the upper elevation terrain. Hourly wind speed averages are in the 20’s with gusts in the high 30’s along the upper elevation ridges. Skies are clearing and temperatures at most mountain top locations are in the upper teens. Close to 2’ of new snow has fallen this past week, though much of the upper elevation wind exposed terrain is severely damaged. However, excellent riding and turning conditions do exist on mid elevation, protected slopes.

Avalanche Conditions:

The combination of strong winds this past week coupled with new snow and rising temperatures has produced widespread natural avalanche activity, especially along the upper elevation terrain throughout the range. Some of the largest avalanches of the year have occurred in just the past few days.

Reports from around Thousand Peaks Ranch indicate the slides in that area, are up to 6’ deep and 500’ wide. An experienced avalanche worker on that side of the range says he’s never seen conditions quite as dicey as this before.

If you’re into avalanche sight seeing, take a ride up the Mirror Lake Highway this weekend and check out the huge slide on the south and east aspects of Bald Mountain. This hard slab avalanche occurred sometime Thursday and is 3’-5’ deep, 500’ wide, and ran for about 600’ vertical feet. Just over the pass, another large natural avalanche occurred on the north face of Murdock Mountain earlier in the week. All of these bone crushing, tree snapping avalanches are running on weak snow near the ground. Also, these avalanches are overrunning low angle terrain, which we would normally think of as areas of safety.

While much of the avalanche activity in the past few days has been confined to terrain above tree line, the winds have been strong enough to move snow around even at mid elevations. I’d continue to have my avalanche eye balls wide open especially on slopes that are on the leeward side of mid elevation ridgelines. With such strong sustained winds, slabs would have formed in some unusual areas. Look for wind drifts around terrain features such as chutes, gullies, and sub-ridges, and a lot of mid slope loading has occurred as well. In addition, cornices have become large and unstable and could break back a lot further than you might expect. Walking up to the edge of one of these monsters to see what’s on the other side could produce a rapid and unexpected surprise.

The sun is getting strong these days and that will increase the possibility of wet avalanches on sun-exposed aspects throughout the day. You’ll want to get off of and out from under steep, sunny slopes as the day progresses.

It’s imperative to continue practicing your safe travel techniques this weekend. Ride or ski a slope one at a time, get out of the way and into a safe location at the bottom of the slope, and always keep an eye on your partner. In addition, carry the appropriate rescue gear such as an avalanche beacon, shovel, and probe and know how to use these tools.

Bottom Line:

The avalanche danger is HIGH today on all steep, upper elevation slopes with recent deposits of wind blown snow. Both natural and human triggered avalanches are likely.

At mid elevations the avalanche danger is CONSIDERABLE on any steep slope with recent deposits of wind-drifted snow. Human triggered avalanches are probable.

In the more protected terrain at mid elevations, the avalanche danger is MODERATE on all slopes steeper than about 35 degrees. Human triggered avalanches are possible in this type of terrain.

Even if you’re playing on low angle terrain this weekend be aware of steep slopes above and adjacent to you.

Mountain Weather:

A flat ridge will be moving over the area today and tonight and this will provide clearing skies and warmer temperatures. Highs today at 8,000’ will be in the upper 30’s and at 10,000’ in the mid 20’s. Overnight lows will be near 20 degrees. Westerly winds will continue throughout the day blowing at speeds of 20-30 mph along the ridges. On Sunday we can expect partly cloudy skies, continued windy conditions, and slightly warmer temperatures. Increasing clouds are on tap for Monday with the possibility of snow returning around Tuesday.

General Information:

If you’re getting out and about please let us know what you’re seeing, especially if you see or trigger an avalanche. Call 1-800-662-4140, or 801-231-2170, or email to [email protected] or fax to 801-524-6301. Your observations could help to save someone’s life. I’ve received some great observations this past week and thanks to those of you who called in with timely snowpack and avalanche information. Please keep them coming!

We will be offering free snowmobile specific avalanche education this year. To schedule a talk and or a field day please call 801-231-2170.

The information in this advisory is from the U.S. Forest Service, which is solely responsible for its content.

This advisory describes general avalanche conditions and local variations always occur.

I will update this advisory by 7:30 a.m. on Sunday, March 9, 2003.

Thanks for calling!