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

wednesDAY decemBER 13, 2006

The information in this advisory expires 24 hours after the date and time it’s issued, and will be updated Saturday December 16, 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 Wednesday, December 13, 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:

A moist westerly flow remains over the region as the next round of snow showers works into the area. Under mostly cloudy skies temperatures are in the mid to upper 20’s at both the trailhead and 10,000’ ridge top elevations. Winds are blowing out of the west-northwest with hourly averages in the upper teens along the ridges and gusts in the low 30’s in the most exposed locations. 2”-3” of new snow has fallen in the past 24 hours. Riding and turning conditions have vastly improved since the Sunday storm which deposited nearly 10” of new snow and total snow depths now average about 30”.  

 

Avalanche Conditions:

With all the weak surface snow out there, you think we would’ve seen a little more avalanche activity other than sluffing on steep slopes as a result of Sunday night’s storm. The new snow was light in density and came in with hardly any winds so a cohesive piece of snow or slab, never developed. Without this key ingredient in the avalanche recipe things were pretty benign. However, yesterday morning winds picked up and we found sensitive shallow soft slabs on steep leeward slopes in upper elevation terrain. These manageable slabs were about 8”-10” deep and easy to detect by their round, fat looking appearance on a slope. Today may not be as straight forward though, as winds are expected to increase throughout the day changing the avalanche equation. I’d suspect more widespread drifting will occur and slabs will become more sensitive as the day wears on. Keep an eye out for changes in the weather and be aware of obvious clues like shooting cracks or whoomphing sounds which indicate unstable snow. In addition, tweak small test slopes with minimal consequences similar in aspect, elevation and slope angle to what you want to ride and gather some information. See how they’re reacting and make informed decisions based on your observations, rather than blindly charging up a steep slope just because there’s new snow.  

 

Bottom Line:

In upper elevation terrain at and above tree line the avalanche danger is MODERATE on slopes steeper than about 35 degrees, especially those with recent deposits of wind drifted snow. A MODERATE avalanche danger means human triggered avalanches are possible.

In terrain not effected by the wind the avalanche danger is generally LOW today.

 

Mountain Weather:

A strong jet stream will remain north of Utah through tonight. Another round of snow is moving across northern Nevada which will arrive over our region by late morning. Temperatures will be mild with highs at 8,000’ in the low to mid 30’s and at 10,000’ near 30 degrees. Overnight lows will hover in the mid 20’s. Strong west winds will rake the higher ridges through tonight, blowing in the 30’s with gusts near 60 mph along the highest ridges. The airmass remains mild through Friday midday then colder air arrives for the weekend with a good shot of snow expected.

 

Announcements:

I want to thank the crew at Tri-City Performance in Springville along with Polaris and the Utah Snowmobile Association for partnering with the avalanche center and stepping up to the plate by providing a new sled for this season!  Click here, to see the new ride!

 

The Moffit Peak weather station is being moved to a more representative location and we hope to have it up and running next week.

 

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 December 16, 2006.

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

1-888-999-4019.

 

 

 

 

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