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 20, 2006

The information in this advisory expires 24 hours after the date and time it’s issued, and will be updated Saturday December 23, 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 20, 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:

Clear skies and a strengthening inversion overnight have driven temperatures into the mid teens at 10,000’ whereas down at the trailhead elevations it’s still in the deep freeze with temperatures hovering right around 8 degrees. Winds are out of the north-northwest, generally blowing 5-15 mph along the ridges. At the most wind exposed locations however, hourly averages are in the 20’s, with gusts near 30 mph. The cold temperatures are keeping the powder cold and fast and the riding remains quite good on all slopes.

Yesterday we installed a wind site on Windy Peak and the data will be available shortly through a link with our valuable partner the National Weather Service. I want to thank Ted Scroggin and Dave Ream from the Evanston and Kamas Ranger Districts for their help and support. Also, I’d like to say thanks to Bill Nicholson and the Park City Powder Cats for partnering with us on this project by giving us a ride to the peak and supplying an awesome group of knowledgeable personnel for the installation. My fingers are just starting to get some feeling back into them after doing time on the tower.

Avalanche Conditions:

The snowpack seems relatively well behaved and adjusted rapidly to last weekend’s storm. I haven’t seen or heard of any recent avalanche activity in our area, but of course if you’re looking for an avalanche… I bet you can find one, however you’ll need the right combination of elevation, steepness and terrain. The most likely place to trigger an avalanche today will be on steep, shady slopes at the upper elevations where winds have been blowing along the highest ridgelines and finding enough snow to form drifts which are sensitive to the additional weight of a rider. While pockety in nature and not terribly widespread, these soft slabs could drag you through a group of trees or worse yet, carry you over a cliff band. While there’s miles and miles of terrain where you won’t trigger an avalanche, if you’re getting into steep radical terrain today, especially rocky slopes with a shallow, weak pre-existing snowpack, think about the consequences of your terrain choices. In this type of terrain, avalanches triggered within the new snow have the remote possibility of breaking into older snow near the ground.

Unfortunately, we learned yesterday that two snowmobilers were killed in separate avalanches accidents on Saturday, one in Wyoming and the other in Montana. These incidents had a few things in common: both involved having two riders on the slope at once, both were in big, committing terrain and in both cases a large load had just been added to an early season snowpack. Our thoughts go out to the family and friends of the victims

Bottom Line:

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

In wind sheltered terrain and at lower elevations the avalanche danger is generally LOW today.

Mountain Weather:

High pressure builds into the region through tomorrow, giving us mostly sunny skies and warming temperatures. Highs today at 10,000’ will be in the low to mid 20’s and at 8,000’ near 30 degrees. Overnight lows dip into the single digits. Winds will remain light and northerly blowing less than 15 mph along the ridges, gusting into the low 30’s at the most wind exposed ridge top locations. Thursday should be a carbon copy, though increasing afternoon and evening clouds signal the leading edge of our next storm. While it looks like this system will split, there’s probably enough energy left over for a few inches of snow developing late Friday afternoon into early Saturday. High pressure returns for the weekend.

Announcements:

Come join us for a star studded fundraising ride on Saturday Jan. 27^th. Click here for more details.

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!

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 23, 2006.

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

1-888-999-4019.

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