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

sundAY march 5, 2006

This advisory expires 24 hours from the date and time posted, but will be updated by 7:30 am wednesday march 8, 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 Sunday March 5, 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 cleared out overnight and it should be another spectacular day in the mountains. Winds have switched to the southwest, blowing 10-20 mph along the upper elevation ridges in advance of a series of storms headed our way. Current ridge top temperatures at 11,000’ are hovering around 15 degrees and down at the trailheads it’s in the low 20’s. No new snow has fallen in the past 24 hours, but the riding and turning conditions remain quite good. Although yesterday’s strong sunshine made the snow on the south facing slopes damp and I’d suspect they’ve got a bit of a crust, if you head for sheltered shady slopes you’ll be treated to cold, soft settled powder.

Avalanche Conditions:

It was a relatively quiet day on the eastern front and with the go-anywhere-kind-of-base we have right now, folks certainly got after it. Fortunately no new avalanches were reported. So what does that say about the state of the snowpack? Well first of all, while there are miles and miles of terrain out there where you won’t trigger an avalanche, you need to be aware there are pockets of unstable snow which will be reactive to the added weight of a backcountry enthusiast today. Remember, winds howled just a few days ago rapidly forming hard slabs on the leeward side of upper elevation terrain. While the slabs are probably starting to relax a bit, I think there are still areas where you could trigger a scary, sizeable hard slab avalanche, especially in upper elevation wind loaded terrain. Hard slabs tend to be unpredictable, allowing you to put a number of tracks on the slope before they fail and avalanche. Once triggered, the hard stubborn slabs will be much deeper and wider than you might expect, so carefully assess each steep slope before deciding to ride on it and think about the consequences of triggering a slide. The most likely place to find these conditions is on slopes facing the north half of the compass. Out of the wind-zone at mid and lower elevations, expect manageable soft wind drifts and sluffing on steep, shady slopes.

Bottom Line:

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

In wind sheltered terrain the avalanche danger is generally LOW.

Mountain Weather:

Mostly sunny skies this morning, increasing southerly winds and warming temperatures are on tap for today. Highs at 8,000’ will be near 40 degrees and at 10,000’ close to freezing. Overnight lows will dip into the mid 20’s. Winds are expected to be increasing throughout the day and should be blowing 15-25 mph by about dinner time. Clouds will thicken tonight and Monday as the first in a series of Pacific systems begins to affect the area. A weakening system is expected Monday night into Tuesday, and then a colder impulse slides through late in the night into early Wednesday. Another, stronger system moves in late Wednesday with cold, unsettled weather likely into next weekend. No one’s going out on a limb with new snow totals just yet, though it looks like it’ll be winter again for the upcoming week!

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 Wednesday March 8, 2006.

Thanks for calling!