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 28, 2004 and it’s 7:30 a.m.

Current conditions:

The ‘little’ storm that keeps giving is slowly exiting the region. In its wake, skies are partly cloudy, light snow showers are still falling, and temperatures have remained relatively cold. Currently at 10,000’ temperatures are in the mid teens. Winds are out of the northwest with hourly wind speeds averages in the 20’s and gusts in the mid 30’s along the upper elevation ridgelines. Riding and turning conditions at the upper elevations are quite good; so don’t get discouraged by the lack of snow down at the trailheads. Up high, storm totals are close to a foot in favored areas. With very supportable crusts underneath the new snow, even low angle slopes are fast and fun.

Avalanche Conditions:

What a great little storm! It still feels like winter out there again and with two nights of cold temperatures the snowpack is starting to get locked in place. Today’s main avalanche concerns will be twofold. First off, at the mid and upper elevations the wind has been hard at work since about noon yesterday. With nearly a foot of snow to blow around, wind slabs were becoming fairly sensitive by late yesterday afternoon. I was easily able to trigger small avalanches about 18” in depth on some of my favorite test slopes and this morning I’d suspect these slabs will be quite a bit deeper. With strong winds overnight, the slabs would have been formed along the leeward side of ridgelines and could be a little lower down slope as well. Remember, the wind drifts rest on top of some very hard, slick crusts and have the potential to run a bit farther and faster than you might expect. While today’s avalanches aren’t in the “tree-snapping category”, they’ll definitely pack enough punch to knock you off your skis or machine and take you for a fast body-bruising ride. Carefully placed slope cuts would once again be a good defensive tool to utilize today.

Secondly, the sun is expected to come out today and the danger of wet avalanche activity will rapidly increase. With strong sunshine overhead, you’ll want to get off of and out from underneath steep sunny slopes at all elevations as the day heats up.

Bottom Line:

At mid and upper elevations the avalanche danger is MODERATE today on all slopes steeper than about 35 degrees with recent deposits of wind drifted snow. Human triggered avalanches are possible.

At low elevations and on slopes less steep than 35 degrees the avalanche danger is generally LOW this morning.

Should the sun come out in earnest today, the danger of wet avalanches may rapidly increase to CONSIDERABLE on and below all steep, sun-exposed slopes. Natural avalanches will be possible at all elevations.

Mountain Weather:

This morning we can expect partly cloudy skies with the possibility of a light snow shower or two. A clearing trend will be developing later in the day as high pressure begins to build over the region. Temperatures will remain fairly cool today with highs at 10,000’ in the low 20’s and at 8,000’ in the mid 30’s. Overnight lows under a clear sky should drop into the mid 20’s. Winds will be switching to the north and should be dying throughout the day, backing off into the 5-15 mph range along the ridgelines. For Monday, high pressure will strengthen and we can expect a rapid warming trend through about Wednesday. By midweek, temperatures will be sweltering once again with highs reaching into the mid 50’s. There’s a chance for some weather to move into the region later in the week and I’ll have a better handle as to the strength of this system for Wednesday’s update.

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.31, 2004.

Thanks for calling.