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 14, 2004 and it’s 7:30 a.m.

Current conditions:

The combination of clear skies overnight and cool temperatures would’ve given the snowpack another solid refreeze. Overnight lows dipped into the low 20’s along the highest ridges and into the mid to upper 20’s at 8,000’. Currently, temperatures at 10,000’ are hovering in the mid 20’s and winds are out of the west at speeds of 10-20 mph along the ridges. Riding and turning conditions are quite good with supportable corn on the sun-exposed slopes, and recrystalized powder on steep, sheltered, shady slopes.

Avalanche Conditions:

The snowpack has been fairly well behaved this past week and with a strong melt-freeze cycle underway, it’s virtually locked in place. However, “news of the weird” always seems to trickle out of the Uintas and yesterdays headline occurred in the Thousand Peaks area. A group of skiers had just descended a slope and were waiting for the last member of their party to meet up with them. As the last skier came to the bottom and put a turn in to stop, the entire slope collapsed, dropping about 5”. One of the party members summed it up by saying, “a loud, booming whumph, that sounded like a shotgun blast rang out.” This occurred around noon, on a southeast-facing slope, at about 9,800’ in elevation. Snow depths in this area averaged about 2’ and the pack was unusually weak and shallow. While not widespread, this incident definitely puts a wrinkle in the recent trend of our strengthening snowpack.

As the old saying goes, “timing is everything”. So this time of year it’s best to get on the snow early in the day when it’s supportable and follow the sun around as it softens the snows surface. Once you find yourself sinking much past your ankles in wet, gloppy snow, either move onto another aspect or get off the snow entirely. Wet avalanches, while often slow moving, have the consistency of cement and can pile up huge amounts of debris. You’ll want to avoid terrain traps such as gullies and steep road cuts, especially late in the day.

Bottom Line:

The avalanche danger is generally LOW this morning and may rise to MODERATE on steep slopes with daytime heating. Human triggered avalanches will be possible as the day wares on.

Mountain Weather:

Clouds will be on the increase today, and we might even see a flurry or two, as a weak weather system crosses the northern portions of the region. Temperatures will be a little cooler with highs at 10,000’ reaching into the upper 20’s and at 8,000’ near 40 degrees. Overnight lows will dip into the low 20’s. Winds will be out of the west at speeds of 10-20 mph this morning, and could be fairy strong by late in the afternoon, gusting into the 30’s along the ridges. Monday looks like it should be partly cloudy with cooler temperatures and light winds. Another dry cold front works into the region late Tuesday, though moisture will be limited. Warm, dry, high pressure builds for later in the week and there are no storms in sight.

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.17, 2004.

Thanks for calling.