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 23, 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 23, 2005 and it’s 7:00 a.m.

Announcements:

We installed a beacon-training center at the Nobletts trailhead last weekend and “Beacon Basin” is good to go! Many thanks go out to Backcountry Access for supplying all the equipment, Doug Page and all the volunteers who provided manpower, Jim Conway who was the brains behind the operation, and the Kamas and Heber Ranger Districts for their in-kind support. Swing by and check it out before going on the snow. It’s free and within walking distance from the parking lot.

The Moffit Peak weather station has been repaired and is up and running! Providing the entertainment, route finding, and sherpa services were Ted, Rick, Mark, Joe, and Dave from both the Kamas and Evanston Ranger Districts. I couldn’t have accomplished this task without them and thanks for all your hard work! You can view data by clicking here.

For recent avalanche photos click here.

Current Conditions:

If you want to get out of the valley fog, haze, smog, or whatever choice words you have for it, head up to the mountains. The skies are clear and the temperatures along the ridges are already a couple of degrees warmer than the Salt Lake Valley. For instance, it’s 31 dreary degrees in the city, yet at 11,000’ it’s 33 degrees. Trailheads are cooler by just a few degrees. Winds are out of the northwest blowing 10-20 mph along the highest ridges. The riding and turning conditions are a mixed bag with a few old tired scraps of powder on the high elevation shady slopes, and some supportable corn-like crusts developing on the sunny aspects.

Avalanche Conditions:

Today we’ll be dealing with two different types of avalanches, wet spring-like slides and the old nasty hard slabs formed during the big storm a couple of weeks ago. The good news is the warm sunny weather is helping the snowpack to consolidate and strengthen, but remember as the day heats up you’ll want to get off of and out from under steep sunny slopes. Wet avalanches descending the slope may be able to trigger a deeper avalanche, so during the heat of the day it’s probably not a good idea to have a picnic or change your sparkplugs under any steep, sunny slopes.

The bad news is, the bigger, deeper, hard slab avalanches are still lurking, but now it’s getting harder to trigger these and the consequences remain every bit as severe. Still the most likely place to trigger one of these would be in steep, rocky terrain, with a weak shallow snowpack.

Bottom Line:

The danger of triggering a deep hard slab avalanche today is MODERATE on slopes facing north through east, especially in areas with a thin, weak snowpack on slopes steeper than about 35 degrees. A moderate avalanche danger means human triggered avalanches are possible and natural avalanches unlikely.

On steep sunny slopes the avalanche danger will rise to MODERATE with daytime heating.

Mountain Weather:

High pressure remains centered over Utah today, and then begins to shift east of the region tonight. We can expect mostly sunny skies, with highs at 8,000’ near 50 degrees and at 10,000’ in the mid 40’s. Overnight lows will be in the upper 20’s. Winds will be light and out of the west blowing 5-15 mph along the ridges. Monday and Tuesday look about the same, though a few high clouds will drift through at times. By Wednesday night a weak system tries to break down the ridge and may bring a few inches of snow for Thursday. A little stronger system could slide into the area late Friday into Saturday.

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. 26, 2005.

Thanks for calling!