Wasatch Cache and Uinta National Forests

In partnership with: Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center, The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center, Utah State Parks,

Tri-City Performance, Polaris, the Utah Snowmobile Association, the National Weather Service, BRORA, and Backcountry Access.

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Avalanche advisory

wednesdAY january 18, 2006

This advisory expires 24 hours from the date and time posted, but will be updated by 7:30 am saturday january 21, 2006.

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 Wednesday, January 18, 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:

“Beacon Basin” is good to go and ready to use at the Noblett’s Trailhead. While you’re waiting for your partners 
to gear up, swing by and test your avalanche beacon skills. It’s free and easily accessible from the parking lot. A big thanks 
goes out to members of the Utah Snowmobile Association for assisting in the installation and to Backcountry Access for 
providing all the gear. 
 
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 the Utah Avalanche Center’s western Uinta avalanche forecasting 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:

Clouds settled into the region late yesterday afternoon and as advertised, snow began falling right around dinner time. New snow totals so far are about 2” at 8,000’ and double that amount above 9,500’. Winds have been increasing overnight, out of the west-southwest, with hourly averages in the 20’s and gusts in the 40’s at the most exposed locations. Currently, temperatures are in the mid 20’s at 8,000’ and near 17 degrees at 11,000’. Excellent riding and turning conditions exist on a very supportable base, but visibility may become an issue today as the storm gets cranking. A winter storm warning is in effect for the western Uinta Mountains and if the forecast verifies we could be measuring storm totals in feet when it’s all said and done.

Avalanche Conditions:

You couldn’t ask for a better snowpack stability pattern than would we’ve been experiencing the past couple of weeks. Our “designer” storms are followed by a few days of warmth and sunshine, making for a homogenous and relatively strong snowpack. In the aftermath of the New Years avalanche cycle, most of our avalanche problems have been within the new storm snow. I think today’s avalanche concerns will follow the same pattern, but don’t let your guard down just yet, because today will be a day of rising avalanche danger, especially in terrain which is receiving the most snow and wind. There’s plenty of snow available to blow around and form sensitive wind drifts, particularly in upper elevation terrain. Strong winds overnight would’ve formed slabs on slopes facing the north half of the compass, and I’d bet these slabs could be close to a foot deep in some places. The most obvious areas would be on the leeward side of ridges, but I’d also suspect wind drifts would be forming around chutes, gullies and sub-ridges. They’ll be easy to deal with this morning, however be aware there are some slick bed surfaces for today’s avalanches to run on and they may pack more of a punch than you might expect. Finally, I don’t anticipate the avalanche danger to rise rapidly, but it should creep up on us towards the end of the day. If you’re headed back from a long day of riding or just out for a late afternoon romp, be aware of changing weather and avalanche conditions.

Bottom Line:

For upper elevations, at and above tree-line, the avalanche danger is MODERATE today on slopes steeper than about 35 degrees, with recent deposits of wind drifted snow. A MODERATE avalanche danger means human triggered avalanches are possible.

As snow starts to stack up and winds continue to howl the avalanche danger may rise to CONSIDERABLE on steep, upper elevation wind loaded slopes, especially later in the day. Remember- a CONSIDERABLE avalanche danger means human triggered avalanches are probable.

In wind sheltered terrain on slopes less steep than 35 degrees, the avalanche danger is generally LOW.

Mountain Weather:

Today we’ll see mostly cloudy skies, relatively mild temperatures and strong winds, especially this morning. Highs at 8,000’ will be in the mid to upper 20’s and at 10,000’ near 20 degrees. Overnight lows drop into the mid teens. Winds will be blowing out of the west and southwest with hourly averages in the 20’s and 30’s and gusts in the low 50’s along the most exposed ridgelines. Periods of heavy snow throughout the day will start to stack up and totals by late this evening should be close to a foot. Colder air arrives early Thursday morning and this could enhance snowfall and give us an additional 8” or so by mid day Thursday. The storm winds down in the afternoon as weak high pressure builds. Partly cloudy skies and cold temperatures are forecast for Friday. Another storm should begin to affect the region early Saturday morning, but right now there seems to be some computer disagreement as to the track, timing and strength of this system… I’ll keep you posted.

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.

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 Saturday January 21, 2006.

Thanks for calling!