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

WEDNESAY november 30, 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 Wednesday, November 30, 2005 and it’s 7:00 a.m. Avalanche advisories for the western Uintas are available on Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday and all holidays.

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:

Snow totals stacked up surprisingly well last night. About a foot of new snow fell in a fairly evenly distributed fashion, though it looks like the Lily Lake area picked up close to 16”. 8,000’ temperatures are in the low to mid 20’s and along the ridges it’s near 10 degrees. There’s a stiff wind out of the northwest blowing 20-35 mph, making it feel more like a hand numbing minus11 degrees. Better bundle up if you’re headed up high today. The riding and sliding conditions are improving with each storm, though average snow depths are still only in the 3’ range. Avoiding an injury this time of year is always on the forefront of my mind, so I’m still sticking with packed trails and grassy slopes.

Avalanche Conditions:

The past few storms have been pretty user friendly. Light density snow and a little bit of wind, which equates to not much of an avalanche danger. While these storms fell on some weak snow, the key ingredient missing was a cohesive slab. Well, that’s all about to change and here’s why. Snow and water totals are starting to creep up on us and overnight we’ve added quite a bit of weight to the snowpack. In addition, temperatures have risen and winds are strong along the ridges. Now we have a dense, cohesive slab sitting on top of a variety of weak layers and it’s going to start to get spooky out there. The avalanche danger is rising and human triggered avalanches will be possible today, especially on steep upper elevation slopes with recent deposits of wind-drifted snow. If you want to avoid avalanches, simply stick to low angle, lower elevation wind protected terrain.

The forecast calls for warming temperatures and significant snow Thursday and Friday. I expect the avalanche danger to rise accordingly. If the forecast verifies, natural avalanche activity may be possible Thursday and Friday. You’ll need to keep a close eye on the weather and changing snow conditions. Remember- a number of avalanche accidents and close calls occur early in the season when riders don’t think there’s enough snow to avalanche. However, if there’s enough snow to ride on, there’s enough snow to slide. Start thinking about your safe travel rituals. Ride the slope one at a time, always keep an eye on your partner, and go out prepared with all the right rescue gear… avalanche beacons, shovels and probes, and know how to use them.

Mountain Weather:

A cold front has moved through the area and an unstable northwest flow should continue through this morning, giving us another inch or two of snow. High temperatures at 8,000’ will be near 20 degrees and at 10,000’ in the low teens. Overnight lows will be in the single digits. Northwest winds blowing in the 20-40 mph range along the ridges, are going to make it feel pretty darn cold out there today, but those winds should begin to taper off in the afternoon. A warm front moves into the region on Thursday and significant snow along with strong southwest winds and rising temperatures are going to make things pretty interesting over the next 36-48 hours. Another good shot of snow is expected Friday afternoon and evening. Storm totals should be close to two feet by Saturday morning.

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 Saturday December 3,2005.

Thanks for calling!