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.

special Avalanche advisory

tuesdAY january 3, 2006

This advisory expires 24 hours from the date and time posted, but will be updated by 7:30 am wednesday january 4, 2006.

Good morning! This is Craig Gordon with the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center with a special avalanche and mountain weather advisory for the western Uinta Mountains. Today is Tuesday, January 3, 2006 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:

Strong winds and recent heavy snows have prompted me to issue an avalanche warning for the western Uinta Mountains. 
A HIGH avalanche danger exists on steep slopes, particularly at upper elevations. Both human triggered and natural 
avalanches are likely.
 
A special thanks to Tri-City Performance, Polaris and The Utah Snowmobile Association for stepping up to the plate and partnering
to provide a new sled for this program. 
 
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:

A strong band of precip is churning our way and snowfall rates should start to increase in the next couple of hours.10” of new snow has fallen since noon yesterday, bringing our storm snow totals at the upper elevations to a whopping 4’ with close to 5” of water. Southerly winds have been howling overnight, with hourly averages in the 20’s and gusts in the 40’s and 50’s. The riding and turning conditions are a bit funky and inverted and today’s lack of visibility won’t help matters much.

Avalanche Conditions:

The mountains continue to get hammered with dense, heavy snow and nuking winds. Visibility has been so poor the past few days that I haven’t been able to see much in the way of avalanche activity. However, my gut tells me the place is probably coming unglued! A tremendous amount of snow and water weight has been slammed down onto our snowpack in a short period of time. While the pack is relatively strong, just the shear amount of new snow coupled with strong winds has me on edge. Steep, wind loaded slopes at upper elevations have the potential to produce large, dangerous and possibly unsurvivable avalanches. If you’re getting out today, avoid these slopes and avalanche runout zones. Even when you’re playing in low angle terrain, be aware of steep slopes above and adjacent to you. People without well developed snow analysis, route finding, and rescue skills should avoid backcountry travel today.

Bottom Line:

At upper elevations, at and above tree-line, the avalanche danger is HIGH today on all slopes steeper than about 35 degrees with both recent and old deposits of wind drifted snow. A HIGH avalanche danger means both human triggered and natural avalanches are likely.

At mid elevations the avalanche danger is CONSIDERABLE today on all slopes steeper than about 35 degrees with recent wind drifts. A CONSIDERABLE avalanche danger means human triggered avalanches are probable, natural avalanches possible.

Mountain Weather:

The last in the series of strong storms is set to bear down on the region early today and we should see an additional 4”-8” before snowfall rates rapidly taper off by about lunch time. Winds are going to be a big issue, especially this morning, cranking out of the southwest, 20-40 mph with higher gusts at the most exposed mountaintop locations. After this band of moisture moves through the area, winds should back off and become westerly, blowing 15-25 mph along the high ridges. Highs today at 8,000’ will be near 30 degrees and at 10,000’ in the low to mid 20’s. Overnight lows dip into the mid teens. A weak little storm could bring scattered snow showers to the region tonight and Wednesday, but accumulations look negligible. High pressure builds for Thursday and Friday and another little system should start to move into the area by early Saturday.

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.

I’m hoping to have the “Beacon Basin” training site up and running this Saturday Jan.7th 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 January 4, 2006.

Thanks for calling!