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, March 6, 2004 and it’s 7:30 a.m.

Current conditions:

This morning’s news of the weird is the strong winds that have developed overnight. Along the ridges westerly winds are blasting with hourly averages in the 30’s and gusts in the low 50’s at the most exposed locations. Currently, skies are mostly cloudy, temperatures are in the upper teens, and a trace of new snow has fallen in the past 24 hours. It’s going to be a mixed bag out there today. The sun has baked the south facing aspects this week and they will offer up a variety of challenging crusts underneath the wind whipped snow. Unfortunately the upper elevation wind exposed terrain is severely damaged. However, good riding and turning conditions will be found on very wind protected, shady slopes.

Avalanche Conditions:

We’ll have a couple of avalanche concerns to think about today. First off, the good news is this past week close to a foot of Utah’s finest light density snow fell straight out of the sky with hardly a breath of wind. The bad news is that’s all changed overnight and the howling winds will have no problem blowing this ultra-light snow around. I’d suspect very sensitive wind drifts have formed along the leeward side of mid and upper elevation ridges and these could be several feet deep this morning. In addition, these hurricane force winds would have formed sensitive drifts lower down on the slope and in unusual locations. I’d be leery of steep, mid slope breakovers and around terrain features such as chutes and gullies, as they have been heavily cross-loaded.

Secondly, our problem child- the January facets- continues to plague us, misbehaving every chance it gets. As a matter of fact, this week there was a close call near Smith-Moorehouse, involving this notoriously tricky layer. A group of experienced backcountry skiers were descending a west-facing slope late in the day. Two skiers had already skied down and gotten into a safe zone to keep an eye on their partner. As the third skier was just about mid-slope he triggered an avalanche well above him, though fortunately he was able to get off the slab. While the party was a bit shook up, everyone came home safe. The slide occurred on a 36-degree slope at about 8,500’ in elevation. It averaged 2’ in depth, was 150’ wide, and ran for close to 500’ vertically. The debris piled up deeply into a gully and this is what we commonly call a terrain trap. This party did all the right stuff by going one at a time, getting into a safe location at the bottom of the slope, and keeping an eye on their partners. My personal thanks go out to this party for calling in their detailed information. Observations such as these are a vital component to this avalanche advisory program!

Not every slope in the range is avalanching and there is plenty of terrain out there to ride and slide safely. But remember, deep instabilities such as these buried facets can allow you to get well out onto a slope before it fails. When it does, you’re staring down the barrel of a large, scary avalanche. You’re best bet is to watch your slope angles and carefully evaluate each slope, especially in terrain where the snowpack remains shallow and weak.

Bottom Line:

At mid and upper elevations the avalanche danger is CONSIDERABLE today on all slopes steeper than about 35 degrees with recent deposits of wind drifted snow. Human triggered avalanches are probable and natural avalanches are possible. While not widespread, avalanches triggered today may break into deeper, buried weak layers.

At low elevations on slopes steeper than 35 degrees that are wind drifted, the avalanche danger is MODERATE. Human triggered avalanches are possible.

On slopes less than 30 degrees in steepness and out of the wind the avalanche danger is generally LOW.

Mountain Weather:

A Pacific storm system will cross the northern portion of the state today giving us mostly cloudy skies with occasional snow showers. Storm totals look to be in the 3”-5” range. Winds will generally be out of the west blowing at speeds of 25-35 mph along the ridges this morning, and should start to relax later in the day and switch to the northwest. High temperatures at 10,000’ will be in the low 20’s and at 8,000’ near freezing. Overnight lows will be in the mid teens. Warm high pressure begins to build on Sunday and we will see mostly sunny skies with highs in the low 40’s. By mid week it’ll really feel like spring with clear skies and temperatures climbing into the mid 40’s.

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, Mar.7, 2004.

Thanks for calling.