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 january 10, 2007

The information in this advisory expires 24 hours after the date and time it’s issued, but will be updated with on Saturday January 13, 2007.

 

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, January 10, 2007 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 and are brought to you in partnership with Utah State Parks and Recreation.

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. 

 

Come join us for a star studded fundraising ride on Saturday Jan. 27th. Click here for more details or call 801-963-3819.

 

Current Conditions:

High clouds are beginning to develop over the area this morning, ahead of a cold Pacific storm headed our way. West and southwesterly winds have been steadily increasing since about 3:00 am and are blowing in the 20’s with gusts in the low 40’s along the high ridges. 10,000’ temperatures are in the low 30’s and it’s 21 degrees at the trailheads. The lack of significant new snow in conjunction with the epic wind event of last weekend has made the riding and turning conditions hit and miss… in most cases more miss than hit. However, word on the street is there’s still some patches of soft settled powder and your best bet will be on sheltered shady, mid elevation slopes.  

 

Avalanche Conditions:

The slab created by the weekend wind event has relaxed somewhat and in most places is like a broken rubber band with little stored energy. In the past two days neither Ted nor I have seen any recent avalanche activity, which would indicate the snowpack is adjusting to the recent rapid load. The warm temperatures have helped settle things out a bit, but given the overall weak structure of our snowpack I think there are still a few places where you could trigger an old hard wind slab. The most likely place would be steep shady slopes at upper elevations. Look for and avoid any obvious fat pillows of snow particularly ones that have a hollow drum-like sound and these may be a bit farther down slope than you might expect. In addition, winds will be increasing today and there’s enough loose snow available to blow around and form shallow new wind drifts, which should be relatively predictable and manageable in size.

 

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 both old and recent deposits of wind drifted snow. A  MODERATE avalanche danger means human triggered avalanches are possible.

At mid and lower elevations and in non-wind affected terrain the avalanche danger is generally LOW.

 

Mountain Weather:

A cold Pacific system should arrive sometime early Thursday morning giving us a much needed coat of new paint. Ahead of the storm we should see thickening clouds throughout the day, warm temperatures and increasing southwesterly winds. Highs at 8,000’ will be near 40 degrees and at 10,000’ in the low to mid 30’s. Overnight lows dip into the low 20’s. Winds will be blowing 15-25 mph along the ridges and gusting into the upper 30’s at the most exposed mountain top locations. Light snow should begin late tonight, but it really doesn’t get going until Thursday morning as cold arctic air moves over the region. Thursday should be cold and snowy with highs in the mid 20’s. Snow continues through Friday and Saturday with high temperatures only reaching into the single digits. Storm totals should be around a foot. 

 

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 Saturday January 13, 2007.

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

1-888-999-4019.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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