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

saturdAY april 1, 2006

This advisory expires 24 hours from the date and time posted, but will be updated by 7:30 am sunday april 2, 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 Saturday April 1, 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:

Light snow showers developed overnight and it looks like most areas picked up about 3” of new snow. A mid day cold front should help to cool temperatures down a bit, but currently at the trailheads it’s right around 32 degrees and up at 11,000’, in the mid 20’s. Along the high ridges, southerly winds are blowing 10-20 mph with an occasional gust in the mid 30’s. Riding and sliding conditions vary with aspect and elevation. Down low and on most south facing slopes there’s a very supportable melt-freeze crust with a little new white dust on top. At mid and upper elevations nearly every slope that isn’t north facing slope has a crust. If you’re looking for powder the best bet is high elevation, sheltered shady slopes.   

 

Avalanche Conditions:

Yesterday my field partner Ted Scroggin and I traveled to the southern half of the range and found very good mid winter conditions in upper elevation north facing terrain. Winds were blowing out of the south and southeast and while most slopes are sun-baked, surprisingly there was enough cold dry snow to blow around and form shallow soft slabs, especially in the wind zone above tree line. We found these were fairly shallow and easy to manage, but the winds did continue to blow overnight and with the addition of a few new inches of snow, today’s wind drifts may be a bit deeper and should certainly be more widespread. You’ll find these drifts near and along the leeward side of ridges, but due to the easterly component of the wind direction, they may have developed in some unusual places on slopes with a westerly aspect. Also, be aware that any slope that is not directly north facing has some form of crust and this will act as a good bed surface for avalanches to run on. As the afternoon snow starts to stack up, remember- triggering even a small slide could have body bruising consequences if you get slammed into a group of trees.  

 

Bottom Line:

The avalanche danger in upper elevation terrain near and above tree-line is MODERATE today on slopes steeper than about 35 degrees, especially those with recent deposits of wind drifted snow. Human triggered avalanches are possible.

Should the sun poke out for any length of time today, the danger of wet slides and sluffs will increase to MODERATE on all steep sun exposed slopes.

 

Mountain Weather: 

Morning snow showers should linger over the area, and then a break in the action before a cold front arrives in the early afternoon bringing widespread snow to the region. A few hours of heavy snow will accompany the front and snow totals should be 4”-8”. Lightening is a possibility with frontal passage. South and southwest winds are expected to blow 15-25 mph this morning, shifting to the northwest with the arrival of the front and then relax into the 10-20 mph range this afternoon. High temperatures at 8,000’ will be in the low 30’s and at 10,000’ in the mid 20’s. Overnight lows dip into the mid teens. Snow shuts down around mid night as brief high pressure builds for Sunday, giving us partly cloudy skies, light winds and slightly warmer temperatures. Southwest winds pick up on Monday ahead of a large trough which is expected to settle in over the region Tuesday through Thursday. It looks like this could be another cold snow producer and I’ll have a better handle with timing and possible snow amounts for Sunday’s advisory.  

 

Announcements:

 
If any terms confuse you, take a look at our new avalanche encyclopedia.
 
“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 Sunday April 2, 2006.

Thanks for calling!