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

saturdAY april 15, 2006

This advisory expires 24 hours from the date and time posted, but will be updated by 7:30 am sunday april 16, 2006. Sunday April 16^th will be the last of my regularly scheduled advisories.

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 15, 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:

Overnight, temperatures cooled, winds switched to the northwest and light snow began falling. It’s not a big storm with most upper elevation terrain above 9,000’ picking up 3” of new snow. Along the ridges, winds are out of the northwest blowing 10-20 mph with an occasional gust in the mid to upper 20’s. Current temperatures at 8,000 are hovering near freezing and at 11,000’ it’s in the mid 20’s. Last night’s shot of snow would have definitely improved the riding and sliding conditions.

Avalanche Conditions:

The little bit of snow the mountains are receiving isn’t going to drastically change the avalanche conditions today, but there are two main avalanche problems we have to deal with. First, there have been some gusty ridge-top winds and they’ve probably whipped up a fresh batch of wind drifts. These shallow soft slabs will be manageable in size and you’ll find them on leeward slopes at the upper elevations. In addition, there are plenty of slick sun crusts out there for today’s avalanches to run on and they may travel a little faster than you might think. Consider the consequences and take care one doesn’t knock you off your skis or machine and carry you over a cliff or slam you into a group of trees… that’ll ruin your day!

The other avalanche concern is wet slides, particularly at mid and lower elevations where the snowpack hasn’t seen a solid refreeze in a number of nights. Below about 9,000’ the pack is saturated and punchy. On steep slopes at mid and lower elevations, I think you could trigger a small wet sluff which in turn has the chance of gouging deeper into the snowpack. The slide you trigger may be larger than you’d expect and could have the possibility of burying someone deeply, especially in a terrain trap such as a gully or road cut. Steep rocky slopes would be prime suspect terrain to avoid as the day heats up.

Bottom Line:

The danger of dry snow avalanches at upper elevations near and above tree-line is MODERATE today on slopes steeper than about 35 degrees with recent deposits of wind drifted snow. Human triggered avalanches are possible.

At mid and low elevations the danger of wet, loose slides is MODERATE this morning and depending on cloud cover and winds, the danger may rise to CONSIDERABLE, on some steep slopes with daytime heating. A CONSIDERABLE avalanche danger means human triggered avalanches are probable, natural avalanche possible.

Mountain Weather:

The current storm system should move east of the area by afternoon, giving us partly cloudy skies and cooler day time highs. An additional 2”-4” of snow is expected. Highs at 8,000’ will be in the upper 30’s and at 10,000’ near 30 degrees. Overnight lows under clearing skies should dip into the mid 20’s. It’ll be breezy along the ridges, generally blowing out of the west at speeds of 15-25 mph. Sunday looks like a beautiful day with partly cloudy skies and highs in the mid 40’s. Southwest winds will be on the rise throughout the day and should be cranking by about dinner time as a cold Pacific storm slides into the region bringing us a good shot of snow Sunday night through Monday. I’ll have better details as to timing of the storm and snow amounts on tomorrows 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 16, 2006.

Thanks for calling!