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 january 14, 2007

The information in this advisory expires 24 hours after the date and time it’s issued, but will be updated with a holiday forecast on Monday January 15, 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 Sunday, January 14, 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.

 

We installed Beacon Basin yesterday at the Noblett’s Trailhead and it’s good to go. I want to thank Doug, Bill, Jared, Brad and Wally who

unselfishly took time out of their powder day to help out the riding community… you guys rock!

 

Current Conditions:

Under mostly clear skies the brutally cold temperatures continue this morning as Arctic air remains over the region. Trailhead temperatures are a finger numbing -9 degrees and along the ridges it’s -13 degrees. Of course there are exceptions. At notoriously colder spots like Lily Lake it’s a fuel gelling -27 degrees. Winds are out of the north-northwest at speeds of 10-20 mph at most ridge top locations, though along the high peaks, winds are blowing 20-30 mph producing an Everest-like wind-chill of -40 degrees! You don’t wanna change a sparkplug or swap out bindings in that kind of weather. If you can stand the cold, the riding and turning conditions are actually quite good with about a foot of very light density “cold smoke” left over from Thursday’s storm.

 

Avalanche Conditions:

The avalanche conditions haven’t changed much in the past 24 hours and both sluffing on steep slopes and shallow soft slabs are going to be our main, yet manageable concerns today. Yesterday I found the new light density snow very reactive and it was easy to get fast moving sluffs to run on the steep slopes I traveled on. I don’t think they’ll be quite as reactive today due to the cold temperatures, but with all the slick bed surfaces underneath take care that one doesn’t knock you off your feet in steep terrain and send you for an unexpected ride. Secondly, there are a few soft slabs that developed in the past few days along the leeward side of the highest ridges. You’ll find the majority of these soft wind drifts formed on steep slopes facing the north half of the compass. They’ll be around a foot or so deep and easy to detect by their rounded pillow-like appearance. Once again today, well placed slope cuts and sluff management will be good defensive measures in steep terrain.

 

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 non-wind affected terrain the avalanche danger is generally LOW.

 

Mountain Weather:

We can expect a slow warming trend the next couple of days under mostly sunny skies. Highs today at 10,000’ will be near zero and at 8,000’ about 5 degrees. Overnight lows will again be close to -10 degrees. Winds should remain relatively light today, out of the north, blowing 10-20 mph with occasional higher gusts in the low 30’s along the highest ridges. While temperatures warm for Monday, unfortunately winds increase into the 30’s and 40’s at the most wind exposed locations. The rest of the week should be quiet and now there seems to be more uncertainty for the storm at the end of the week. I’ll have more details on tomorrow’s advisory.

 

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 Monday January 15, 2007.

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

1-888-999-4019.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 .