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 december 4, 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, December 4, 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:

I’ll be giving a snowmobile specific avalanche awareness talk this Tuesday December 6th at 7:00 pm at Full Throttle Power Sports in Centerville.
 
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:

A cold northwest flow will linger over the region through the day, ushering in some very cold, unstable air. Skies are mostly cloudy and there’s an occasional light snow shower or two moving through the area. Temperatures at the trailheads are just starting to creep out of the single digits, but along the high ridges we’re still in negative territory. The Moffit Peak weather site at 11,000’ reports minus 2 degrees and winds are generally out of the north blowing 10-20 mph. Factor those two together and it’s about minus 20 degrees along the ridges. 6” of light density, cold smoke has fallen in the past 24 hours, stacking storm totals to over the hood and over the head proportions. Nearly 30” of snow has fallen since Thursday in favored locations on the northern portion of the range. Storm totals on the southern half of the range are about half that amount.

Avalanche Conditions:

By all accounts, yesterday was one of the best days of the year. The riding is pretty phenomenal right now, though in most areas still a little too deep to really get after it. No avalanche activity was reported from the Uintas, but four skiers were involved in a slide in backcountry terrain on the Park City side of the range. The avalanche occurred on an easterly facing slope at about 9,800’, averaged 2’ in depth and was quite wide, taking out their tracks from two previous runs. All four in the party were partially buried and lost gear. Thankfully no one was injured.

Right now our snowpack remains quite variable in both depth and strength and there’s plenty of terrain in the Uintas where you could trigger an avalanche today. The most pronounced avalanche danger exists on mid and upper elevation slopes facing northwest through east, which had a pre-existing snowpack prior to the Thanksgiving storm. These slopes are most dangerous because during the November dry spell, the snow sat on the ground and over time, grew weak and sugary. Now we’ve slammed a bunch of weight on top of it. These types of conditions are tricky because just like yesterdays close call, you can put a bunch of tracks on a slope and nothing happens. Just when you’re feeling confident though, you hit a weaker spot in the snowpack and release a big avalanche. Remember- nature is always giving us clues to snow instability, we’ve just got to slow down and pay attention. One of the keys to riding safely the next couple of days is being aware of obvious clues such as collapsing or whoomphing of the snowpack. Also, look for cracks shooting out from around your machine. Dig quick hand pits and take a look at the layering of the snow and see if you’re riding on weak, sugary facets. Get as much information about the snowpack before center-punching your favorite bowl or chute. Finally, if you want to avoid avalanches altogether, ride on slopes that had no snow prior to the latest round of storms.

With all the rocks and stumps out there, going for a ride in an avalanche this time of year can have nasty consequences.

A number of avalanche accidents and close calls occur early in the season when we 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. Finally, if your buddy gets stuck on a slope, don’t go up to help.

Bottom Line:

In upper elevation terrain at and above tree line the avalanche danger is CONSIDERABLE today on northwest through east facing slopes steeper than about 35 degrees, especially those with recent deposits of wind drifted snow. A CONSIDERABLE danger means human triggered avalanche are probable, natural avalanches possible.

At mid and lower elevations the avalanche danger is MODERATE today on slopes steeper than about 35 degrees with recent wind drifts. Human triggered avalanches are possible.

Mountain Weather:

Under mostly cloudy skies and light snow showers, it’s gonna be downright frigid out there today as the coldest portion of the trough moves overhead. Highs at 8,000’ will be near 15 degrees and I think we’ll be lucky to get out of the single digits at 10,000’. Overnight lows are expected to be around 5 below zero. West and northwest winds blowing 15-25 mph along the highest ridges will add a bite to the air and you might want to keep an eye on your partners for frostbite. Partly cloudy skies are expected on Monday with slightly warmer temperatures. Tuesday and Wednesday may bring in another round of unsettled weather, but not much new snow accumulation is expected. The cold snap should break later in the week as high pressure starts to build.

General Information:

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. Also, once there’s enough snow, I’ll have the “Beacon Basin” training site up and running again this year at the Nobletts trailhead.

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 December 7, 2005.

Thanks for calling!