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 21, 2004 and it’s 7:30 a.m.

Current conditions:

Clouds are starting to stream into the area and Southerly winds started to pick up at about 9:00 last night. At the upper elevations hourly wind speed averages have been in the low 20’s with gusts in the mid 30’s at the most exposed locations. Current 10,000’ temperatures are in the mid teens. No new snow has fallen in the past 24 hours, though Thursday’s storm helped to freshen the conditions up a bit. Snow totals vary with location and the southern parts of the range received about 8” of new snow. The North Slope however did well with this storm and this part of the range received closer to 14” of new snow. Recent fieldwork and observations indicate a slightly higher avalanche danger in areas that received more snow. Riding and turning conditions are much improved with sheltered, shady slopes being the terrain of choice for today.

Avalanche Conditions:

The new snow that fell on Thursday was ushered in with strong northwesterly winds, and this combination created sensitive soft slabs, which were quite reactive to the additional weight of backcountry travelers yesterday. On the North Slope where they received more new snow than other parts of the range, a number of backcountry enthusiasts were able to trigger soft slab avalanches and the largest one I heard of occurred in the Thousand Peaks area. This human triggered avalanche was 2’ deep, about 30’ wide, and ran for close to 300 vertical feet. It was initiated on a northeast facing slope, 33 degrees in steepness, at 9800’ in elevation. In southern parts of the region, which received less new snow, the slabs were also quite sensitive though closer to a foot in depth. While pockety in nature, all of these slides were mostly confined to upper elevation slopes that had been heavily wind loaded.

While these slabs might not be quite as sensitive today, the problem is they’re now covered over with a fresh round of newly formed wind drifts and have the possibility of breaking a little wider and deeper. So 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. There are plenty of hard, slick bed-surfaces for avalanches to run on and even a small slide could take you for a fast, body-bruising ride.

On steep, wind sheltered slopes the surface snow is sluffing easily and entraining quite a bit of snow as it descends the slope. Be careful that one doesn’t take you for an unplanned ride into a group of trees or over a cliff band. Or worse yet, bury you in a terrain trap such as a gully.

Bottom Line:

The avalanche danger is MODERATE today, at and above timberline, on northwest through east facing slopes steeper than about 35 degrees, especially those with recent deposits of wind drifted snow. 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 couple of weakening weather systems will move over the region today through Tuesday, though the bulk of the moisture is diving south of us and only light snowfall is expected. Today skies will be mostly cloudy with a chance of light snow developing later in the day. High temperatures at 10,000’ will be in the upper teens and at 8,000’ near 30 degrees. Overnight lows will be near 20 degrees. Southerly winds will die down later this morning and switch to the southwest and should remain in the 5-15 mph range along the ridges. Sunday through Tuesday will bring unsettled weather and it looks like a good shot of snow will move into the area late Wednesday night.

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.22, 2004.

Thanks for calling.