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.

 .

 

 

Avalanche advisory

sundAY march 12, 2006

This advisory expires 24 hours from the date and time posted, but will be updated by 7:30 am wednesday march 15, 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 12, 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. 

 

Current Conditions:

Unsettled weather remains on tap for the region through Monday morning as a deep, cold trough is parked over the western US. Temperatures are unseasonably cold and currently at 8,000’ it’s near 10 degrees whereas up at 11,000’ we’re still in the single digits, hovering around 4 degrees. About an inch of new snow has fallen in the past 24 hours. Fortunately, winds relaxed overnight and they’ve become light and variable, blowing less than 15 mph even at the most exposed locations. The riding and turning conditions remain quite good particularly on sheltered, shady slopes.

 

Avalanche Conditions:

Unfortunately, I’ve got to begin today’s advisory on a tragic note. Yesterday afternoon a snowboarder was buried in an avalanche west of Taylor’s Canyon, near Snow Basin. At this moment it appears he wasn’t wearing an avalanche beacon and the search was called off last night due to the threat of other avalanches in the area. The search will continue this morning. The avalanche occurred on a northwest facing slope, about 40 degrees in steepness at approximately 8,400’ in elevation. It was a hard slab avalanche 2’ deep, 200’ wide, created by recent wind loading events and probably ran on the rain crust formed on February 28th. Details are still being gathered and as they become available I’ll post them. My sympathies go out to friends and family.

Closer to home, yesterday’s pesky winds were moving quite a bit of snow around at the upper elevations, forming wind drifts that started out shallow and manageable in the morning, but became deeper and a little more widespread and sensitive as the day wore on. By the end of the day these slabs were up to 2’ deep and once triggered, could easily take you for a ride and ruin your day especially if you got slammed into a group of trees, carried over a cliff or buried in a terrain trap like a gully. Today’s main avalanche problem will be mostly limited to upper elevation, wind loaded slopes where these slabs have been forming for the past few days. I’d be suspect of any steep northerly facing slope above about 9,500’ in elevation, especially those that have a fat, rounded, chalky or slabby appearance. While today’s avalanches will be a little more stubborn than yesterday, the tricky part of the equation is they have the possibility of being unmanageable, breaking above you or when you’re well out onto the slope. In addition, we’re starting to overload some buried weak snow that formed during the dry spell in February and there’s a remote possibility avalanches may begin to step down into these older layers creating a larger slide than you might expect.

 

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 with both old and recent deposits of wind drifted snow. Human triggered avalanches are possible.

In wind sheltered terrain the avalanche danger is generally LOW.

 

Mountain Weather: 

Today we can expect snow showers throughout the day and the forecast calls for an additional 3”-5” as several weak impulses rotate through the area. Winter like temperatures will remain over the region and highs at 8,000’ will be near 20 degrees and at 10,000’ in the mid to upper teens. Overnight lows crash to near zero degrees. Winds will be light and variable, though they may increase for a short time late this afternoon. This current system moves out of the area Monday morning and brief high pressure builds into Tuesday, but it looks short-lived as a stronger cold front sweeps through the region late Tuesday into Wednesday. Prior to the front we should see warmer temperatures and stronger winds. Another system will arrive late in the week.

 

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.

 

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 15, 2006.

Thanks for calling!