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 information update

sunDAY november 27, 2005

 

Good morning! This is Craig Gordon with the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center with your avalanche and mountain weather update for the western Uinta Mountains. Today is Sunday, November 27, 2005 and it’s 7:00 a.m. I’ll begin issuing regularly scheduled avalanche advisories- Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday and all holidays- once there’s enough snow on the ground. 

This advisory covers the terrain from Daniels Summit, to Mirror Lake, to the North Slope of the western Uinta Mountains. That’s a lot of turf and I can’t be in all of these places at once. Your snow and avalanche observations are critical to this program and help to save other riders lives by getting accurate information out to the public. I’m interested in what you’re seeing especially if you see or trigger an avalanche. Please call 1-800-662-4140, or 801-231-2170, or email to [email protected] and fill us in with all the details. 

 

Announcements:

The Moffit Peak weather station is back in operation. This site was made possible through generous donations
by BRORA, The Utah Snowmobile Association, and the National Weather Service. You can view data by clicking here.

 

For avalanche photos click here.

 

We’re looking for feedback on our new advisory page. Click here to check out the new “MOCK UP”. I’d like to hear what you think and you can email me at [email protected] with comments and suggestions.

 

Current Conditions:

The storm is starting to wind down and it looks the North Slope received the lion’s share of the snow- 14” at upper Chalk Creek, a foot near Mirror Lake, and only about 7” on the southern side of the range. Temperatures plummeted overnight and are starting to creep out of the single digits at the trailheads. Along the ridges it’s near zero degrees with a bone chilling northerly breeze gusting into the mid 20’s. The riding conditions have vastly improved overnight, but there’s plenty of big rocks out there waiting to tear off a trailing arm or rip a deep core shot into your skis. It’s probably best to stick on the packed trails or go to your favorite grassy, boulder free slope.

 

Avalanche Conditions:

Just when you think Mother Nature forgot about us, she remembers to turn the “winter switch” on and just like that, it feels like mid January again! I know everyone’s psyched to get out and get after it, but it’s that time of the season when we should slow down for a minute or two and start thinking about avalanches. So the setup is like this- for about three weeks we basked in valley warmth and smog and the early season snows melted off most of the sun-exposed slopes. What’s more concerning is on the shady slopes, particularly above about 9,000’ where the snow didn’t melt off; instead it became weak and sugary. Now we’ve added some weight to those weak layers with yesterdays snow and wind. I don’t think you’ll be triggering big avalanches today, but I do think there are pockets of unstable snow on the leeward side of ridges. Human triggered avalanches will be possible on steep slopes with recent wind drifts, especially in terrain that had an existing snowpack prior to this storm. If you want to play it safe, head to the slopes that had no snow on them before this storm.   

Surprisingly, quite a few avalanche accidents and close calls occur early in the season when riders don’t think there’s enough snow to avalanche. Remember- if there’s enough snow to ride on, there’s enough snow to slide.

You’ll want to go out prepared with all the right rescue gear… avalanche beacons, shovels and probes.

 

Mountain Weather: 

A cold, northwesterly flow will remain over the area today and a few more bands of snow are expected to bring us another 2”-4” before the storm is out of here. Skies will be mostly cloudy this morning, with some breaks possible later in the day. Look for highs at 8,000’ in the lower 20’s and along the ridges in the mid teens. Overnight lows will be near zero. Ridgetop winds will be out of the west and northwest blowing 15-25 mph. A break in the action is expected Monday and Tuesday and a slow warming trend is on tap, as the flow turns southwesterly ahead of the next storm slated for early Wednesday. The long-range forecast calls for yet another strong storm for next weekend!

 

General Information: 

Once there’s enough snow, I’ll have the “Beacon Basin” training site up and running again this year at the Nobletts trailhead.  Also, if you haven’t taken one of our free snowmobile specific avalanche awareness classes, schedule one now before things get too crazy. Give me a call at 801-231-2170 and I’d be happy to tailor a talk for your group.  

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’ll update this advisory by 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday November 30,2005.

 

Thanks for calling!