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 January 15, 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 Saturday, January 15, 2005 and it’s 7:00 a.m.

Announcements:

We will be installing a beacon-training center at the Nobletts Trailhead today. If you’d like to learn more about how to use your avalanche transceiver feel free to come on by.

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

For recent avalanche photos click here.

Current Conditions:

Under partly cloudy skies, temperatures at 10,000’ are in the upper teens and at 8,000’ in the low 20’s. Winds are out of the west and northwest and just started picking up a few hours ago, blowing at speeds of 10-25 mph along the ridges. No new snow has fallen in the past 24 hours, but the riding and sliding conditions are quite good especially on low angle slopes.

Avalanche Conditions:

A large and dangerous avalanche was triggered yesterday afternoon outside of the area boundary at the Canyons Ski Resort. An undetermined number of people are still missing and the Salt Lake office is updating the 364-1591 phone line as information becomes available. In addition, there were three large human triggered avalanches in the Salt Lake area mountains and explosive control work in other areas triggered very large and destructive avalanches. Closer to home the carnage is amazing and yesterday I took a look at some of the slides near Mill Hollow and Current Creek Peak. As with the rest of the activity in the region, these avalanches are snapping mature trees or ripping them out by the roots and depositing huge amounts of debris in the runout zones. On the North Slope one of the biggest slides reported is in Gold Hill Basin. This avalanche broke in thick trees and jumped over sub-ridges like they didn’t even exist. And finally in late breaking news, a large natural avalanche occurred sometime yesterday in the Thousand Peaks area on a steep east facing slope and the crown was close to 10’ deep. This is truly an historic avalanche cycle and I’d expect the unexpected to continue to occur. A lot of folks are commenting how they’ve never seen slopes slide this big and areas we normally think of as safe spots are being over run by these huge avalanches

If you’re getting out today you should still stay off of and out from under any steep slope. Previous tracks on a slope are not a good barometer of stability and if you do trigger an avalanche today it will be large, dangerous, and quite possibly unsurvivable. People without excellent route finding, avalanche, and rescue skills should continue avoid backcountry travel. If you have these skills, there are plenty of low angle slopes to be had and the snow is fast and fun. Remember; even if you’re playing on low angle terrain be aware of steep slopes above and adjacent to you.

Bottom Line:

The avalanche danger is CONSIDERABLE today on and below all steep slopes, especially those facing north through southeast and slopes that have been drifted with wind blown snow in the past few days. Human triggered avalanches are probable and natural avalanches are possible. If you trigger an avalanche today it will be large, dangerous, and most likely unsurvivable.

Mountain Weather:

A band of high clouds in a northwest flow will continue to spread across the region today, bringing with it a chance of light snow tonight and again on Sunday. High temperatures today at 10,000’ will be in the mid 20’s and at 8,000’ in the low 30’s. Overnight lows will be near 10 degrees. Sunday should be mostly cloudy with light snow showers likely, though only about an inch is expected. High pressure should begin to dominate the weather pattern from Monday night through the rest of the week with no storms in site.

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 Jan. 16, 2005.

Thanks for calling!