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, March 7, 2004 and it’s 7:30 a.m.

Current conditions:

Under clear skies and a big, beautiful moon, current temperatures are in the mid teens at most mountaintop locations. The winds continued to blow through most of the night with gusts in the 30’s along the ridges, though this morning they’re more manageable, averaging 15 mph with gusts in the low 20’s. It’s hard to say how much snow really fell yesterday, since most of it wound up in Wyoming, but I’d guess somewhere between 4”-6” actually hit the ground here in Utah. Yesterdays’ nuking winds severely damaged nearly all the wind-exposed slopes out there, though in the most sheltered terrain you can still find good powder riding and turning conditions.

Avalanche Conditions:

Wow, what a windstorm! Yesterdays’ hurricane force winds were blasting along the ridges and were strong enough to knock you off your feet if you weren’t prepared for the gusts. These burly winds made for some pretty exciting avalanche activity, rapidly forming deep, sensitive wind-drifts on leeward slopes. As a matter of fact, as my partner and I traveled along the upper elevation ridges, cracks were propagating well out in front of us, and we were able to trigger avalanches with well-placed ski cuts and cornice drops.

Now that the dust has settled, the snowpack is slowly adjusting to all the added weight slammed down on it and the slabs won’t be quite as sensitive. That’s what makes today’s avalanche conditions even trickier. As the slab gains strength it will allow you to get further out onto a slope before it fails. You’ll want to steer clear of any steep, wind-loaded slope today and the wind-drifts won’t be difficult to spot, as they are size of small humpback whales.

Avalanches triggered today will be large and dangerous and have the possibility of breaking into deeper, buried weak layers. While many steep slopes have avalanched naturally, those that haven’t, hang in the balance awaiting a trigger. It’s going to be hard to tell which slopes have slid, as many of the crowns will be covered over with snow. So your safest bet is to keep your slope angles down. Remember; even if you’re playing in low angle terrain be aware of steep slopes above and adjacent to you.

In addition, a strong warming trend is on tap for today. So, wet sluffs and even the possibility of wet slabs will play into the mix as the surface snow heats up. Today you’ll need to get off of and out from under steep sun-exposed slopes as the day wares on.

Bottom Line:

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. Slides triggered today may break into deeper, buried weak layers. This would result in a large, dangerous, and possibly unsurvivable avalanche.

The danger of wet avalanche activity is MODERATE this morning, rising to CONSIDERABLE with daytime heating, on all steep sun-exposed slopes.

In terrain less than 30 degrees, without steeper wind-loaded slopes above them, the avalanche danger is generally LOW.

Mountain Weather:

High pressure will become the dominant feature of our weather pattern through about midweek, giving us mostly sunny skies and rapidly warming temperatures. Highs today at 10,000’ will be near freezing and at 8,000’ near 40 degrees. Overnight lows will be in the mid 20’s. Winds will be out of the northwest at speeds of 10-20 mph and should become light and variable by early afternoon. For Monday and Tuesday temperatures will rise dramatically and highs are forecast to reach 50 degrees before a weak cold front cools us down on Wednesday.

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, Mar.10, 2004.

Thanks for calling.