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

Good morning and happy Thanksgiving, this is Craig Gordon with the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center with your avalanche and mountain weather advisory for the western Uinta Mountains. Today is Thursday November 27, 2003 and it’s 7:30 in the morning.

Current conditions:

I’m thankful that yesterday’s storm gave us a good shot of snow with totals averaging around 10” of light density snow throughout the range. Currently skies are slowly clearing, winds are light and northerly, and ridgetop temperatures are in the mid single digits. Riding and turning conditions have greatly improved in the past 24 hours, but coverage is still on the lean side especially in the rocky terrain above timberline where snow depths are just starting to crack the 3’ mark.

Avalanche Conditions:

It was an active avalanche day around the region yesterday with two distinctly different types of avalanches occurring.

In mid and low elevations not affected by any wind, steep slopes were sluffing both naturally and with the additional weight of a person.

In the wind zone, above about 9,500’, it was an entirely different world as the winds formed very sensitive soft slabs on the leeward side of ridges and terrain features. While pockety in nature, these wind slabs were several feet deep and quite reactive to the additional weight of a person. Once triggered these slab avalanches were running fast and far, especially where there were stout wind-crusts acting as a bed surface. In addition, cornices were starting to grow in size and were breaking a little father back than you might expect.

The instabilities of yesterday will be on the mend today as temperatures begin to warm and the snowpack adjusts to the added load of the storm. While I don’t think the new snow will be as fragile we’re not out of the woods just yet and today’s avalanches will be similar, though not quite as widespread. If you’re getting into steep upper elevation terrain be on the lookout for the telltale signs of instability such as cracking around your skis or machine.

In steep rocky terrain where the snowpack is shallow the weaknesses near the ground are becoming more apparent and there is an isolated possibility that an avalanche could break into weak layers deeper in the snowpack.

Bottom Line:

At mid and upper elevations the avalanche danger is MODERATE today on slopes steeper than about 35 degrees with recent deposits of wind-drifted snow. Human triggered avalanches are possible.

In wind sheltered mid and low elevation terrain the avalanche danger is generally LOW today, though be aware of sluffing on steep slopes.

Mountain Weather:

High pressure will build over the area today ushering in warmer, drier air. Skies will be clearing throughout the day and temperatures will begin to climb into the mid 20’s at 8,000’ and upper teens at 10,000’. Overnight lows will be near 15 degrees. Winds will be out of the northwest at speeds of 10-20 mph along the ridges. Clouds and wind will be on the increase Friday as a weak system starts to move into the region late in the day. Saturday we should see cloudy skies with a chance of snow, though right now storm totals don’t look all that impressive.

General Information:

We can always use snow and avalanche information and your observations are an important 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.

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.

This advisory will be updated by 7:30 on Saturday morning.

Thanks for calling.