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 decemBER 23, 2006

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

Skies are partly cloudy, northerly winds are blowing 5-10 mph along the ridges and temperatures just about 10 degrees at both 8,000’ and 10,000’. We’ve received 2” of light density snow in the past 24 hours. The riding and turning conditions remain quite good especially on mid elevation shady slopes.

 

Avalanche Conditions:

There’s not a whole lot going on with the snowpack right now and it looks like it should remain pretty tame until we see a change in the weather pattern. While it’s unlikely that you’ll trigger an avalanche today, it’s not totally out of the question especially if you’re starting to step up the seriousness of the terrain you’re riding in. I’m still concerned that a rider may be able to trigger an avalanche that breaks into deeper buried weak layers, but it will take the right combination of steep radical terrain, a weak shallow snowpack with a strong slab on top of it and then finding the right spot on the slope to tickle in order to initiate an avalanche. Check out this recent snowpit on Bald Mountain. If you’re bored with the usual riding circuit and find yourself getting into big committing terrain today carefully assess the slope and think about the consequences. Although pockety and isolated to upper elevation shady slopes facing the north half of the compass, if you’re an avalanche hunter I’m sure you can find one.

 

Bottom Line:

The avalanche danger is generally LOW today and both human triggered and natural avalanches are unlikely.

In upper elevation terrain at and above tree line the avalanche danger is MODERATE today on northwest through east facing slopes approaching 40 degrees in steepness. A MODERATE avalanche danger means human triggered avalanches are possible.

 

Mountain Weather:

High pressure across the area this morning will shift east this afternoon, allowing a fast moving system to clip the northern portion of the state. Look for increasing afternoon clouds, light winds and highs at 8,000’ near 30 degrees, along the ridges it’ll be in the low to mid 20’s. Overnight lows dip into the upper teens. I don’t hold a lot of faith in Sunday’s system, but we may be able to squeak 1”-3” of snow out of it. Brief high pressure builds for Monday, then a messy, unsettled pattern sets up for the rest of the week.

 

Announcements:

Come join us for a star studded fundraising ride on Saturday Jan. 27th. 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 Sunday December 24, 2006.

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

1-888-999-4019.

 

 

 

 

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