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 18, 2005

This advisory expires 24 hours from the date and time posted, but will be updated by 7:30 am wednesday December 21, 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 18, 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 free public avalanche awareness talk at the Wanship Fire Station on Wednesday, Dec. 21st at 7:00 pm. 
The Moffit Peak weather station is up and running. 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.

Current Conditions:

Under mostly cloudy skies, light snow showers are falling and we’ve picked up 4” of new, light density snow in the past 24 hours. Temperatures warmed slightly overnight into the low teens at the trailheads and near 7 degrees along the upper elevation ridges. Winds are out of the west and northwest blowing 10-20 mph with some higher gusts at the most exposed locations. Riding and sliding conditions have improved with this little shot of snow, but the more popular locations have been worked over about as hard as the discount tree rack on Christmas Eve.

Avalanche Conditions:

The avalanche danger hasn’t changed much in the past 24 hours and last nights wimpy little storm didn’t do much to tip the scales. However, the new snow did bury and preserve the weak pre-existing surface snow and that could come back to haunt us in the near future, especially if new snow totals start to pile up. This morning I’d expect to find fresh wind drifts along the leeward side of upper elevation ridgelines and they will be sensitive to the weight of a rider. These shallow wind slabs should be manageable enough with a slope cut, but if the snow starts to stack up this afternoon and Monday, they may start to break a little deeper and wider than you might expect. Take care that one doesn’t knock you off you machine or skis and slam you into a group of trees or take you for a ride over a cliff. That’ll ruin your day.

In the bigger scheme of things, our once supportable snowpack has lost a lot of its strength both at the surface and near the ground. If you take a moment and dig into it, you’ll see for yourself just how weak it’s getting. In terrain where there’s less than about 3’of snow, the pack has become very sugary and now has the structural integrity of a house of cards. For now, the snowpack is like a limp rubber band and the key ingredient missing is a slab. If the weather forecast verifies, heavier snow and stronger winds may affect the region this evening and I’d expect the avalanche danger to rise accordingly.

Bottom Line:

The avalanche danger is generally LOW today on most slopes.

In upper elevation terrain above tree line there are isolated pockets of MODERATE avalanche danger, especially on steep slopes with both new and old wind drifts and human triggered avalanches are possible.

Mountain Weather:

A series of weak, but moist storms will move across Utah from the Pacific through midday Monday. This morning we can expect light snow with another 1”-3” possible, a short break around noon and then a better shot of snow tonight into Monday. Temperatures will be climbing out of the ice box and 8,000’ highs should reach into the low 20’s, with ridge top highs near 15 degrees. Overnight lows will be in the mid teens. Winds will be out of the west, switching to the southwest later in the day and should remain in the 10-20 mph range. A little better looking system should move into the region tonight through early Monday and that should give us the best chance of snow. It’s still a roll of the dice, but we could wind up with 6”-10” of new snow by Monday night. Weak high pressure builds for the mid week period with a hint of some unsettled weather by about Thursday.

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.

This advisory expires 24 hours from the date and time posted, but will be updated by 7:30 am on Wednesday December 21, 2005.

Thanks for calling!