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

wednesday february 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 Wednesday, February 9, 2005 and it’s 7:00 a.m.

Announcements:

Friday nights fundraiser held at the Snowbird Ski Resort was an amazing success. All proceeds go to help 
the wildly popular “Know Before You Go” avalanche education program. 
Thank you very much for all the support! 
 
A beacon-training center has been installed at the Nobletts trailhead and “Beacon Basin” up and running!
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, along with State Parks and The Utah Snowmobile Association
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 is back in operation. This site was made possible through generous donations
from BRORA and The Utah Snowmobile Association and the National Weather Service. You can view data by clicking here.

For recent avalanche photos click here.

Current Conditions:

Skies are clear and with a stiff northerly breeze it’s pretty darn chilly along the ridges. Currently at 11,000’ temperatures are close to 6 degrees and winds are generally out of the north, blowing 15-25 mph along the highest ridges. If you’re trying to do the math, that’s a wind-chill of -13 degrees. 8,000’ temperatures are in the single digits as well, with light winds. Sunday night’s storm deposited close to 18” of very light density snow, which, over the past few days has settled out to about a foot. The riding and turning are quite good, but the steeper slopes are a little scratchy underneath. Lower angle slopes seem to be the ticket because you don’t feel the old hard surface quite as much. Yesterday’s sun did affect the south facing slopes, especially at lower elevations and I’d expect to find a variety of breakable crusts on the sunny slopes

Avalanche Conditions:

Sundays storm was good to the Uintas, stacking up snow at the higher elevations and depositing close to a foot and a half of Utah’s finest ultra-light fluff. While this might not seem too unusual, what was out of the ordinary however was the storm came and went with virtually no wind. What a Uinta rarity! Consequently, the only avalanche activity I saw were some “pockety” sluffs on very steep slopes. Of course, after talking about it all day yesterday, I must have jinxed us because the winds began blowing at about 7:00 pm last night and have been steady along the higher ridges all night long. There’s plenty of very light snow available to blow around and form sensitive new wind drifts and that’s going to be one of today’s avalanche concerns. Up high I’d expect these new soft slabs to be very sensitive to the weight of a backcountry traveler, but a well placed slope cut should help you to evaluate the snow’s stability and eliminate any surprises. There are some very slick bed surfaces for avalanches to run on and once triggered, they’ll be moving a little bit faster and further than you might expect.

Secondly, with rapid warming on tap, the danger of wet avalanches will increase throughout the day. As the day heats up, you’ll want to get off of and out from under steep, sunny slopes.

Bottom Line:

At low and mid elevations the avalanche danger is generally LOW this morning. Both human triggered and natural avalanches are unlikely.

In upper elevation terrain, above timberline, there is a MODERATE avalanche danger on slopes steeper than about 35 degrees, with recent deposits of wind-drifted snow and human triggered avalanches are possible.

At all elevations the danger of wet avalanches will increase to MODERATE with daytime heating on steep sun exposed slopes.

Mountain Weather:

High pressure is gradually building from the southwest and this will give us clear skies, rapidly warming temperatures, and light winds. Highs today at 10,000’ will be in the upper 20’s and at 8,000’ in the mid to upper 30’s. Overnight lows will be near 20 degrees. As the morning progresses, winds will be dying off and becoming northwesterly, blowing less than 15 mph along the ridges. Thursday looks similar though clouds will be increasing during the evening as a weak Pacific storm begins to affect the region. Snow is likely late Friday through Saturday with light accumulations expected.

General Information:

We’re interested in what you’re seeing especially if you see 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 Saturday Feb. 12, 2005.

Thanks for calling!