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 march 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, March 9, 2005 and it’s 7:00 a.m.

Announcements:

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, The Utah Snowmobile Association, and the National Weather Service. You can view data by clicking here.

For recent avalanche photos click here.

Current Conditions:

A northerly flow over the area is bringing us partly cloudy skies and continued warm temperatures. Currently it’s in the mid to upper 20’s at both the trailheads and the upper elevation peaks. Winds are gusty along the highest ridges, blowing out of the north and northeast, averaging 20 mph with gusts in the low 30’s. Believe it or not, there’s still soft recycled powder to be found on obscure, sheltered shady slopes. You’ll need to be pretty crafty if you’re looking for soft snow, because nearly every square foot of the more popular riding terrain has been worked over the past few weeks. South facing aspects are offering up reliable melt-freeze conditions especially as you lose elevation, and the mid and lower elevations have a more mature crop of corn ready for harvesting.

Avalanche Conditions:

It’s been pretty quiet lately in the avalanche department and the snowpack has been rather well behaved. However, today you’ll need to think about two different types of avalanches. First off, even though it’s been weeks since our last snowfall, yesterday’s gusty northerly winds found what little snow was available for transport and formed shallow new wind drifts along the leeward side of the highest ridges. While these new shallow soft slabs aren’t going to bury anyone in your party, they did form on some very weak surface snow and could catch you off guard if you were to trigger one and go for an unexpected ride. With more folks punching out bold lines in steep radical terrain, the consequences of even a shallow slide could ruin your day. Or even worse, your season. Secondly, on the sunny slopes timing is everything. The best way to avoid any wet avalanches is to get on the snow early when it’s hard and supportable, and when things get wet and sloppy either change aspects or get off the snow entirely. As the day heats up you’ll want to get off of and out from under any steep sun exposed slope.

Bottom Line:

There is a MODERATE avalanche danger on upper elevation slopes steeper than about 35 degrees with recent deposits of wind drifted snow. Human triggered avalanches are possible. Also the avalanche danger on steep sun exposed slopes will rise to MODERATE with daytime heating.

The avalanche danger is generally LOW on most other slopes.

Mountain Weather:

A ridge of high pressure will remain over the area the next few days. Today we should see high clouds at times, warm temperatures, and strong winds this morning. Highs today at 8,000’ will be in the upper 40’s and at 10,000’ in the low 30’s. Overnight lows will be in the upper 20’s. Northerly winds will be a nuisance this morning, blowing 20-30 mph along the ridges, but they should die down towards sunset. There’s little change in the weather pattern until Friday when a dry cold front moves into the region. This may help to open the door to a more active weather pattern beginning late in the weekend. Right now the computer models are undecided as to the track of these systems, but I’ll have a better handle on this for Saturday’s advisory.

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 Mar. 12, 2005.

Thanks for calling!