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

sunDAY decemBER 24, 2006

The information in this advisory expires 24 hours after the date and time it’s issued, and will be updated Monday December 25, 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 Sunday, December 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:

A fast moving cold front raced through the region around 1:00 this morning dropping an inch or two of new snow at the trailheads and up to 3” at the upper elevations. In the systems wake, west-northwesterly winds are strong, blowing in the mid 20’s with gusts in the low to mid 40’s. At the most wind exposed locations it’s cranking with hourly averages in the 40’s and gusts in the low 60’s. Temperatures are near 22 degrees at the trailheads and in the mid teens at 10,000’. I bet last nights wind had its way with the upper elevation terrain and I’d suspect most open bowls have seen quite a bit of wind damage. Protected mid elevation shady slopes are the ticket today and should still offer good settled powder riding and turning conditions.

Avalanche Conditions:

Our seemingly benign avalanche conditions of the past week or so are starting to change because the key player, a slab, has been brought into the mix. Last night’s strong winds not only wrecked a lot of good powder up high, they also changed the avalanche danger by forming stiff wind drifts that riders will be able to trigger today, especially in steep upper elevation terrain. There’s plenty of weak snow out there for avalanches to fail on and a slide triggered within one of today’s fresh wind drifts has the possibility of breaking into deeper buried weak layers as it crashes down the slope.

Yesterday a close call on Pioneer Peak in upper Big Cottonwood Canyon occurred in terrain where the consequences of getting caught in an avalanche are severe. The avalanche triggered was a hard slab initially failing on weak snow near the ground in a steep, northeasterly facing chute at about 10,200’ in elevation. Fortunately for the two riders, by shear luck they triggered the slide high on the slope and didn’t get caught. While this slope is miles from the western Uinta’s, our snowpack structure is similar. I think the possibility of triggering a larger avalanche exists in steep rocky terrain facing the north half of the compass where a stiff slab rests on top of a shallow weak snowpack. (Check out this recent snowpit on Bald Mountain)

Today, take a minute or two and carefully evaluate the snowpack by digging down with your hands our shovel and see what the snow you’re riding on looks like. If you’ve got strong snow, or a slab, on top of weak surgary snow… you’ve got a problem. Also, be alert to hollow sounding snow or cracking around your sled, board or skis. Finally, assess the slopes you’re planning to ride and think about the consequences of triggering an avalanche.

Bottom Line:

In upper elevation terrain at and above tree line the avalanche danger is MODERATE today 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 wind sheltered terrain and at lower elevations the avalanche danger is generally LOW today and human triggered avalanches are unlikely.

Mountain Weather:

High pressure will build across the area today and shift east tomorrow afternoon, allowing a change in the stagnant weather pattern. Today skies will clear, but the northwesterly winds should remain brisk for the next few hours along the ridges averaging in the 20’s, gusting into the low 40’s. High temperatures at 8,000’ will reach into the upper 20’s and at 10,000’ near 20 degrees. Overnight lows under partly cloudy skies dive into the single digits. Christmas Day should start out sunny, though increasing clouds stream in ahead of a progressively stronger looking system slated to impact the region Tuesday through about Thursday. I’ll have a better handle on the strength and size of this developing storm for tomorrow’s advisory.

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 Monday December 25, 2006.

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

1-888-999-4019.

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