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

Saturday DECEMber 25, 2004

Good morning and Merry Christmas! 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, December 25, 2004 and it’s 7:30 a.m.

Announcements:

We have installed a weather station in the Moffit Peak area. Click here to see temperatures and wind data.

Many thanks go out to the Utah Snowmobile Association and BRORA for their generous contributions.

For recent avalanche photos click here.

Current Conditions:

A strong temperature inversion developed overnight and the higher you go the warmer it is. For example, at Smith-Moorehouse it’s 14 degrees and up on Moffit Peak it’s already 22 degrees. Up high though you’ll have to deal with some pesky northerly winds. Hourly wind speed averages have been in the low 20’s with gusts near 30 mph along the highest ridges. No new snow has fallen in the past 24 hours, but the mid week dusting has helped to cushion the crusts on the sunny slopes and deepen the powder on the shady aspects. The riding and turning conditions are surprisingly good.

Avalanche Conditions:

Winds have been busy at work for the past two days, creating sensitive new wind drifts along the leeward side of the upper elevation ridges. Most of these new wind slabs are about a foot deep and fairly manageable with a well-placed slope cut. However, with all the slick underlying crusts out there, take care that one doesn’t surprise you and knock you off your skis or machine. So today’s most obvious avalanche danger is within the new wind drifted snow.

The not so obvious avalanche danger is the old hard slab formed by the storm two and a half weeks ago, which sits on top of the weak November facets. Today’s warmer temperatures may help the slab to become a little more reactive to the weight of a backcountry traveler. I still think that with the right combination of a steep slope, a thin snowpack, and an unlucky rider you could have an isolated possibility of triggering a deeper avalanche.

Finally, temperatures will be on the rise today and wet snow sluffs will be possible on steep sunny slopes during the heat of the day.

Bottom Line:

The avalanche danger is generally LOW today on most slopes at mid and lower elevations.

Above timberline the avalanche danger is MODERATE today on slopes steeper than 35 degrees with recent deposits of wind drifted snow. Human triggered avalanches are possible.

There are isolated areas at upper elevations where you could still trigger a deeper avalanche, especially on steep rocky slopes, with a shallow weak snowpack. In this type of terrain the avalanche danger remains MODERATE.

Mountain Weather:

High pressure will remain in place for the next couple of days resulting in mostly sunny skies and warming temperatures. High temperatures at 8,000’ will be in the upper 30’s and at 10,000’ near freezing. Overnight lows will be around 20 degrees. Winds will be switching to the west and southwest and will blowing in the 15-25 mph range along the ridges. On Sunday we should see increasing afternoon clouds with the possibility of a flurry or two by sunset as a weak system brushes by the region. The computer models have been consistent for sometime now, indicating a wetter pattern developing by about midweek. We’ll keep you posted.

General Information:

We’re interested in what you’re seeing especially if you observe or trigger an avalanche. Call 1-800-662-4140, or 801-231-2170, or email to [email protected] or fax to 801-524-6301 and fill us in with all the details.

If you’d like to schedule a free snowmobile specific avalanche talk and or a field day, please call 801-231-2170.

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 Dec. 26, 2004.

Thanks for calling!