Wasatch Cache and Uinta National Forests

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

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

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Avalanche advisory

wednesdAY february 22, 2006

This advisory expires 24 hours from the date and time posted, but will be updated by 7:30 am saturday february 25, 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 Monday February 20, 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:

Skies are mostly cloudy and light snow is falling as we remain under the influence of a cold northwest flow. Overnight, 1”-2”of new snow has fallen and the winds are still a nuisance at the upper elevations, blowing out of the northwest with hourly averages in the teens and gusts in the mid to upper 20’s. Along the higher ridges at 11,000’ temperatures are currently close to 2 degrees and coupled with the winds it feels more like a toe numbing -20 degrees. Trailhead temperatures are a little easier to stomach; they’re in the mid teens with light winds. The upper elevations have seen strong winds in the past few days and many slopes are hard, slick and severely wind damaged. However, riding and turning conditions remain quite good in wind sheltered terrain, where you’ll still find cold settled powder.

Avalanche Conditions:

For the past three days northwesterly winds have been blowing at the upper elevations and they’re finding plenty of snow to move around and form wind drifts in a variety of locations. The most obvious is going to be on the leeward side of upper elevation ridgelines, but yesterday my partner and I found slabs forming in gullies, chutes and around terrain features. Most were fairly soft, predictable and manageable in size, breaking at your feet or track rather than up above you. However, in more wind exposed locations the slabs are stiffer and are resting on either lighter density snow or old weak surface snow and there’s the distinct possibility these hard slabs will break above you or wait until you’re well out onto the slope before they fail. In either case they could be a foot or two deep and break wider than you might expect. This type of avalanche problem is tricky, because the slab feels solid underfoot or machine, giving us a false sense of security. The best way to avoid triggering an avalanche today is to stay off of steep, upper elevation wind loaded slopes. In sheltered terrain at mid and lower elevations, the winds haven’t been much of an issue and the avalanche danger is generally low.

Bottom Line:

The avalanche danger is MODERATE today in upper elevation terrain near and above tree-line, on slopes steeper than about 35 degrees with both old and new deposits of wind drifted snow. A MODERATE avalanche danger means human triggered avalanche are possible.

In wind sheltered terrain the avalanche danger is generally LOW.

Mountain Weather:

A cold, moist northwest flow will keep skies mostly cloudy with a slight chance of an additional inch or two of snow today and again tonight. It’ll remain cold for one more day with highs at 8,000’ in the low 20’s and at 10,000’ in the mid teens. Overnight lows drop into the single digits. Winds will be out of the north and northwest, blowing 15-25 mph with higher gusts possible in the most exposed locations. High pressure starts to nudge into the region on Thursday and Friday and we should be drying out through the weekend. Temperatures will start to warm into the low 30’s for daytime highs under partly cloudy skies. Looking into the weather crystal ball… more snow should be on the way next week around Tuesday or Wednesday.

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 February 25, 2006.

Thanks for calling!