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. 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 Sunday, January 25, 2004 and it’s 7:30 a.m. Backcountry Awareness Week wraps up today and there are a number of avalanche classes being offered at Snowbird. For more details visit http://www.backcountryawareness.com/

Current conditions:

Finally, for the first time in about two weeks we have some new snow totals to talk about. The much anticipated storm system is just starting to push into the region and we’ve received about 4” of very, light density snow. Temperatures are falling and currently at 10,000’ it’s 8 degrees. Northwesterly winds are starting to increase along the ridges with hourly averages in the teens and gusts in the low 30’s at the most exposed locations. While today won’t quite meet up to “one of the best days of the year” criteria, the turning and riding conditions will be much improved.

Avalanche Conditions:

Hopefully you’ve gotten a chance to get out and see where all the weak surface snow that we’ve been talking about for the past week exists, because now it’s buried under a blanket of new snow making it hard to detect. If you haven’t been out recently however, here’s the scoop. We have a bit of an unusual pattern on our hands as a thick layer of weak, near surface facets has developed on shady, wind sheltered slopes. What makes this condition atypical is that some of the weakest surface snow is more widespread at mid and lower elevations, where as up high it’s pockety in nature. The new snow we’ve received came in cold and is very light in density and will have trouble bonding to the old snow surface. In addition, it won’t take much wind to blow the snow around and form sensitive slabs. So, we have the perfect setup now for slab avalanches, as there are bed-surfaces for avalanches to run on, an abundance of old weak surface snow, and with winds already on the rise, a slab will be forming on top of this mix. Now all that is needed is a trigger. Today’s avalanche conditions will be tricky and your best bet is to gather as much information as possible by ski cutting or high marking small test slopes and see how they’re reacting to your additional weight. You’ll also want to be alert to changing weather conditions and should we receive more wind or snow than forecast the avalanche danger could rise rapidly.

Bottom Line:

At all elevations the avalanche danger is MODERATE this morning on all slopes steeper than about 35 degrees, particularly those with recent deposits of wind-drifted snow. Human triggered avalanches are possible.

Be aware the danger may rise to CONSIDERABLE by this afternoon, especially at and above timberline where winds will be strongest. A CONSIDERABLE danger means that human triggered avalanches are probable and natural avalanches are possible.

Mountain Weather:

A cold front is working its way through the state and we should see a decent, although fairly short-lived, snow event this morning. It looks like we could pick up an additional 5”-9” of snow before the storm starts to taper off this afternoon. Temperatures will be falling today and highs at 10,000’ will be in the low single digits and at 8,000’ near 15 degrees. Overnight lows will be around zero. Winds will be out of the northwest this morning, switching to the west by afternoon and should remain in the 15-25 mph range along the ridges. We’ll remain in a cold, unsettled pattern through about mid-week with a chance of snow each day, though none of the impulses rippling through the area look like huge snow producers.

General Information:

We can always use snow and avalanche information and your snowpack and avalanche observations could help to save someone’s life. 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.

I will update this advisory by 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2004.

Thanks for calling.