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.

 .

 

 

holiday Avalanche ADVISORY

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 24, 2006

The information in this advisory expires 24 hours after the date and time it’s issued.

 

 

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 Friday, November 24, 2006 and it’s about 7:00 in the morning. Avalanche advisories for the western Uinta’s 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 801-231-2170, or email at [email protected] and fill me in with all the details. 

 

Current Conditions:

In the wake of yesterdays fast moving storm system, skies cleared and temperatures dropped faster than a bad stock option. Currently it’s 9 degrees at 10,000’ and in the mid teens at the trailhead elevations. Winds are blowing out of the west-northwest at speeds of 10-20 mph along the ridges. Wednesday’s storm was a turkey by all accounts as most areas only picked up about an inch of new snow. Riding and sliding conditions are pretty bleak, but among the hard crusts, wind damage and frozen old tracks, I bet you can find a patch or two of soft settled powder on protected slopes at mid elevations.

 

Avalanche Conditions:

Yesterdays southerly winds nuked along the high ridges and blew what little snow there is out there onto the leeward slopes, forming shallow hard wind slabs. Most slabs I found were pretty stubborn and you really had to hunt around to find one that would crack out around you. While pockety in nature and not widespread, I’d still be suspicious of any steep upper elevation slope especially where slabs have formed on weak snow.

Today’s other avalanche concern is the ongoing possibility of triggering a larger avalanche on weak snow near the ground. Certainly the warm temperatures this past week have allowed the snowpack to strengthen and the deeper slab instabilities seem to have adjusted over time. However, there are places you could still trigger a large avalanche and steep upper elevation slopes with a shallow weak snowpack would be likely suspects.

 

Bottom Line:

At and above tree-line, the avalanche danger is MODERATE on all slopes steeper than about 35 degrees facing the north half of the compass, especially those with recent deposits of wind drifted snow. A MODERATE avalanche danger means human triggered avalanches are possible.

On all other slopes the avalanche danger is generally LOW.

 

Mountain Weather:

High pressure will be over the region today giving us mostly sunny skies and warming temperatures. Highs at 10,000’ will be in the mid 20’s and at 8,000’ near freezing. Overnight lows dip into the mid teens. Winds will shift to the southwest and remain tolerable, blowing 10-20 mph with an occasional gust at the most exposed locations in the low 30’s. A weak system works its way in the area late Saturday bringing a slight chance of a flurry or two. Sunday we should see increasing winds and clouds with snow developing late in the evening. A good shot of snow still looks on track for Monday and Tuesday. The less we talk about it, the greater the chances are it might really happen.

 

Announcements:

Free avalanche awareness classes are available. Give me a call at 801-231-2170 or email [email protected] and get one scheduled before the season gets too crazy!

If any terms confuse you, take a look at our new avalanche encyclopedia.

For avalanche photos click here.

 

General Information: 

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.

I’ll update this advisory by 7:30 am on Saturday November 25th.

This advisory is also available by calling 1-800-648-7433 or

1-888-999-4019.

 

 

 

 

 .