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.

holiday Avalanche ADVISORY

monDAY february 19, 2007

The information in this advisory expires 24 hours after the date and time it’s issued, but will be updated on Wednesday February 21, 2007.

Good Morning! This is Craig Gordon with the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center with your holiday avalanche and mountain weather advisory for the western Uinta Mountains. Today is Monday, February 19, 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.

Current Conditions:

Light snow began falling around midnight, depositing about two inches of new snow from Daniels Summit to Trial Lake. The North half of the range however, has only seen an inch of new snow so far. Temperatures are warm, in the upper 20’s at 8,000’ and mid 20’s at 10,000’. Winds are cranking along the upper elevation ridges, out of the west-southwest with hourly averages in the 30’s, gusting into the low 50’s.

Avalanche Conditions:

Yesterday I investigated the avalanche which killed a young snowmobiler northeast of Tower Mountain. The avalanche occurred on a heavily wind loaded, east through southeast aspect at about 9700’ in elevation. The hard slab avalanche was 2’-4’ deep, 300’ wide, running 200’ vertically. While the slope only averaged 33-35 degrees in steepness, the rider triggered the avalanche high on the slope, where slope angles reached into the 37-38 degree range. The rider was buried 3’-4’ under the snow, though quickly located near the toe of the debris under his sled, which was sticking out of the snow. The group did have avalanche rescue gear and while the rescue was performed very quickly, the consequences of the avalanche were catastrophic and 16 year old Zachary Holmes died of trauma. My condolences and prayers go out to Zach’s family and friends. I’ll have a full description of events, including a more precise location, available on our website in the next day or two.

There have been three avalanche fatalities in Utah since Saturday which saddens me greatly. What bums me out even more though, are that many obvious clues of snow instability are being overlooked as we are driven by the intoxicating combination of fresh snow and sunshine, leading us blindly into avalanche prone terrain. Remember- the biggest clue to avalanches… is avalanches. If you’re seeing or triggering avalanches on slopes similar to what you want to ride on, it’s time to rethink your terrain choices. I know we’re powder starved, but we need to remember our snowpack is weak and fragile and has just been walloped by a series of storms and strong wind events. It’s going to take some time for the snowpack to gain strength and we’ll just have to be patient. It doesn’t mean you can’t go out and ride. In fact there are plenty of places to go and not trigger an avalanche today and you don’t need to be a snow scientist in order to come home safely. The key to avoiding avalanches is toning your slope angles down and being aware of obvious clues to snow instability. Avalanches triggered today still have the possibility of breaking into deeper buried weak layers, creating a large, dangerous and possibly unsurvivable avalanche.

Bottom Line:

In mid and upper elevation terrain, at and above tree line the avalanche danger is CONSIDERABLE today on all slopes steeper than about 35 degrees with both old and recent deposits of wind drifted snow, especially those with an easterly component to their aspect. A CONSIDERABLE avalanche danger means human triggered avalanches are probable and natural avalanches are possible.

At lower elevations the avalanche danger is MODERATE on recently wind loaded slopes and human triggered avalanches are possible.

Mountain Weather:

A moist northwesterly flow in the wake of a departing system will continue to produce snow through early afternoon. Total accumulations should be in the 3”-6” range. Temperatures should begin to fall and we’ve already reached our highs for the day. Overnight lows under clearing skies dip into the low teens. Winds will begin to switch to the northwest and die down into the 10-20 mph range with gusts in the 30’s along the high ridges. A warming trend with clear skies develops for Tuesday and early Wednesday with another system slated to arrive Thursday.

Announcements:

We finally got the Windy Peak weather station up and running. Click here for current conditions.

I’d like to thank Jim Shea, The Canyons and Colleen Graham from the Friends of the UAC for all their hard work in making the Know Before You Go fundraiser such a success!

The first annual western Uinta fundraising ride was an amazing success with nearly 150 people showing up for the ride alone!

I want to thank the Jim Shea Family Foundation, Rocky Mountain Sledders, the Wasatch Snowmobile Association and the Utah Snowmobile Association for all their tireless work in putting the event together. Thanks again to Team Thunderstruck and the Boondockers crew for helping out and schooling even the most experienced riders. Also, we couldn’t have pulled it off if it weren’t for Chad Booth who did an incredible job as both master of ceremonies and auctioneer. Finally, it wouldn’t have been possible without the support of everyone who attended… you folks are awesome!

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!

We installed Beacon Basin 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!

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 7:00 am on Wednesday February 21,2007.

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

1-888-999-4019.

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