In partnership with: Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center, The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center and Utah State Parks.
Good morning, this is Craig Gordon with the Forest
Service Utah Avalanche Center with an avalanche and mountain weather update for
the western Uinta Mountains. Today is Saturday November 15, 2003 and it’s 7:30
in the morning.
Current conditions:
Snow coverage throughout the range is still a bit on
the thin side with depths averaging a little over 2’ above 9,000’ in elevation.
The biggest danger out there right now is probably slamming into a hidden rock or
stump and local shops are keeping plenty busy, repairing damaged machines. Trail
riding or turns on a smooth grassy slope continues to be the best bet at this
time.
Avalanche Conditions:
While the avalanche danger in the western Uinta
Mountains has been fairly negligible this week, frankly due to lack of snow, in
neighboring ranges things are getting interesting. On Wednesday, a local rider was
buried several feet deep after triggering a slide on Logan Peak. He was not
wearing a beacon, though his partners did have a couple of shovels and a probe.
Fortunately they were able to locate and dig him out and the incident has a
happy ending. The central Wasatch has been quite active as well, with a number
of avalanches triggered by backcountry enthusiasts in the past few days.
The avalanche danger will be on the rise this weekend
as a series of storms begins to affect the region. The areas of most concern
will be steep, upper elevation, wind loaded slopes, especially those that have
a pre-existing snowpack. If your getting out and about this weekend, be alert to
the clues of instability such “whumphing” sounds or cracking of the surface
snow around your skis or machine. With
all the rocks and stumps out there hidden under this veil of thin snow, going
for a ride in an avalanche would have a nasty result.
Many avalanche accidents and close calls occur early
in the season when our avalanche eyeballs are just starting to get back into
focus. If you start to venture into steep terrain, practice safe travel
techniques and carry a beacon, shovel, and a probe.
General Information:
We’ll begin issuing our regularly scheduled
advisories as soon as there’s enough snow to get the season rolling, hopefully after
this weeks’ storm cycle.
We can always use snow information and observations
from riders and skiers are a vital component to this program. So if you see or
trigger an avalanche give us a call at 801-231-2170 or 1-800-662-4140.
Also, if you’d
like to schedule a free avalanche awareness talk and/or field day give us a
call at 801-524-5304.
I
will be giving a free avalanche awareness talk on Friday November 21st
at 6:00 p.m. The location is Buttars Tractor,
which is on 1640 West Main Street in Tremonton.
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.
Thanks
for calling.