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 INFORMATION UPDATE

Monday, April 14, 2003

This is Craig Gordon with the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center with an avalanche information update for the western Uinta Mountains.

We have ended our regularly scheduled avalanche advisories for the season, but of course that doesn’t mean that there won’t be any more avalanches. In fact spring snowstorms are quite common in Utah and it’s not unusual for the mountains to receive significant snowfall well into the month of June. Also, with warm temperatures, wet avalanches will certainly occur and some of them could be large wet slabs that could break down to the ground, especially in terrain that has a weak, shallow snowpack. So here are a few pointers to help you make your own snowpack and avalanche danger evaluation.

In general you can count on several types of avalanche conditions in the spring. Whenever we get a storm the avalanche danger will rise, as the new snow might not bond well to the existing crust it falls on. As always, recent avalanche activity as well as cracking and collapsing of the snowpack are dead giveaways that the snowpack is unstable. Even if these clues don’t present themselves, be sure to do some tests on smaller slopes that have minimal consequences, especially after a significant snowfall. If there is much wind associated with the storm of if there is snow available for transport before it gets cooked into place, expect to find potentially unstable wind drifts on the leeward side of slopes.

Also, when the sun first comes out and the snow goes through its first rapid warm up, avalanches will be likely on steep slopes. You can expect the usual round of wet sluffs and occasional wet slabs, but fortunately new snow instabilities tend to stabilize rather quickly in the spring due to the warm temperatures. As usual, you’ll want to get off of and out from under any steep slope during the heat of the day.

Finally we’ve experienced an atypical snow year and in many areas the snowpack has remained shallow and weak. When the snowpack goes several nights without a good, solid refreeze deep wet slab avalanches will be possible, especially in steep terrain that has had a thin snowpack all year.

You can keep up on current weather conditions with a NOAA weather radio, or on the internet at

http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/SaltLake.

General Information:

If you’re getting out and about we’d still like to hear from you, 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.

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.

The Salt Lake office will continue to issue afternoon avalanche advisories as needed until about the end of April. You can obtain that information on the internet as well as by phone at 801-364-1581.

I’d like to thank those of you who helped to support this program all season. In particular a big thanks goes out to Utah State Parks, the Kamas and Evanston Ranger Districts, the Utah Snomobile Association, Arctic Cat Snowmobiles, and all of you who were diligent in calling in timely snowpack and avalanche observations.

Have a safe spring and summer and we’ll see you back here next season when the snow flies!

Thanks for calling