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

sunday January 9, 2005

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, January 9, 2005 and it’s 7:00 a.m.

Announcements:

We’re experiencing some technical difficulties with the Moffit Peak weather station. Hopefully I’ll have those worked out once the storm cycle ends. Thanks for your patience.

For recent avalanche photos click here.

Current Conditions:

The winds continued to rage all day yesterday and through the night. Hourly averages were in the 40’s and gusts in the 60’s and 70’s were recorded at the most wind exposed locations. It’s calmed down slightly this morning with gusts only in the low 50’s. New snow totals are hard to pin down but I’d say in the past 24 hours we’ve received close to a foot. Current temperatures are near 30 degrees at 8,000’ and in the mid 20’s at 10,000’.

Avalanche Conditions:

On a sad note, two avalanche fatalities occurred on the Manti-Skyline yesterday. When details become available we’ll post them.

An AVALANCHE WARNING remains in effect today for the western Uinta Mountains, due to strong winds, warming temperatures, and recent snowfall. Avalanches triggered today may be large, dangerous, and possibly unsurvivable. If you’re getting out on the snow you’ll need to stay off of and out from under any steep slope with recent deposits of wind drifted snow. People without well-developed backcountry route finding, rescue, and avalanche skills should avoid backcountry travel. Since we’re going on three days of raging wind and warming temperatures, dense slabs exist on just about every slope out there and have formed in unusual locations. Wind deposits will be much further down the slope than you might expect. Cross loading would have occurred in terrain features such as gullies, even at low elevations. Also some of our weakest snow exists at mid and low elevations and these are the places we usually go to get out of the wind. So once again it’s probably a good day to get your taxes done and wait for things to quiet down out there.

Bottom Line:

The avalanche danger is HIGH today on all steep slopes with recent deposits of wind-drifted snow. Both human triggered and natural avalanches are likely.

Remember; even if you’re playing on low angle terrain be aware of steep slopes above and adjacent to you.

Mountain Weather:

The strong southwest flow aloft will bring a series of fast moving weather disturbances across Utah through about midweek. This morning look for a little break in the cloud cover. Then things should start to fill back in and we could see another decent shot of snow tonight into Monday morning with about a foot of snow expected. Temperatures will remain fairly mild with highs at 8,000’ in the low 30’s and at 10,000’ in the mid to upper 20’s. Overnight lows will be in the mid 20’s. Southwest and westerly winds will be cranking throughout the day at speeds of 30 mph with higher gusts along the ridges. This pattern will continue until about Wednesday. It looks like we start to dry out towards the latter part of the week.

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 Wednesday Jan. 12, 2005.

Thanks for calling!