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 Saturday, February 14, 2004 and it’s 7:30 a.m.

Current conditions:

Overnight low temperatures dipped into the teens for a while last night, though they’re already on the rebound this morning. Currently under partly cloudy skies 10,000’ temperatures are in the low 20’s and winds are generally out of the west at speeds of 5-15 mph along the highest ridges. The riding and turning conditions remain quite good especially on sheltered slopes that face the north half of the compass. On the south facing aspects the sun has created some challenging crusts that soften and become more manageable by about midday.

Avalanche Conditions:

The cold temperatures we’ve experienced this past week have continued to weaken our snowpack, especially in terrain where the pack remains relatively shallow. Yesterday, while traveling along the ridgelines around Hoyt’s Peak, my partners and I were able to get several, low angle slopes to collapse and “whumph” with our additional weight. These unnerving sounds are indicative of a weak layer buried within the snowpack. The culprit involved? Well you’ve probably guessed that already, it’s the weak snow created during the January dry spell. As a matter of fact, one of these collapses resulted in an avalanche on a Northeast, facing slope at 10,000’ in elevation. This hard slab avalanche averaged 18” in depth, 2’ at its deepest point, was 100’ wide, and ran for about 200 vertical feet. The slope averaged 35 degrees in steepness, with a mid slope break-over measuring 38 degrees. What makes this avalanche particularly interesting, is it was triggered while my party and I were traversing a flat sub-ridge adjacent to the slope.

The stability pattern remains quite complex with the common denominator being; where there is a dense slab on top of weak snow you could probably still trigger an avalanche today. Take the time to investigate the snowpack and see what you’re dealing with before committing to a slope.

In addition, many steep slopes throughout the range are sluffing easily and entraining quite a bit of snow as they descend the slope. Take care that one doesn’t take you for a ride over a cliff band or bury you deeply in a terrain trap such as a gully.

Bottom Line:

The avalanche danger is MODERATE today, at and above timberline, especially on northwest through east facing slopes steeper than about 35 degrees. Human triggered avalanches are possible.

At low and mid elevations and in wind-protected terrain on slopes less steep than 35 degrees the avalanche danger is generally LOW.

Mountain Weather:

A weak weather disturbance will usher in high clouds and cooler temperatures later in the day, with a chance of light snow developing this afternoon. Snowfall totals are grim with around a trace to 1” expected. We’ll start off with partly cloudy skies this morning and warm temperatures with highs at 8,000’ near 32 degrees and at 10,000 in the mid 20’s. Once the cold air arrives, temperatures should fall rapidly and overnight lows will be near 10 degrees. Winds will be out of the west, then turning northwest this afternoon and should be blowing in the15-25 mph range along the ridges. Sunday and Monday will be mostly cloudy and cooler with a passing flurry or two. The ridge rebounds on Tuesday and a strong warming trend is on tap for midweek. Our next best chance for any significant snowfall will be late Wednesday into Thursday, though the computers models are hinting towards a splitting system at the moment.

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 Sunday, Feb.15, 2004.

Thanks for calling.