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 warning!

thursDAY february 22, 2007

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

 

Good Evening! 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 Thursday, February 22, 2007 and it’s about 8:30 pm. Regularly scheduled 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. 

 

Avalanche Conditions:

An avalanche warning is in effect for the western Uinta Mountains. There is a HIGH avalanche danger on slopes steeper than about 30 degrees. Avalanches will occur with human and natural triggers.  Backcountry travel not recommended.

West and southwest winds blew strong Wednesday night and raged all day Thursday with hourly averages in the upper 40’s, gusting to 73 mph along the high peaks. The winds stripped many upper elevation ridgelines down to bare ground, transporting an amazing amount of snow in a short period of time onto leeward slopes. Dave, Ted and I braved the hurricane force winds and tried to look at the recent avalanche activity at the upper elevations this morning, but the winds were so strong they were rocking our sleds while we rode along the ridges, nearly blowing us over into Evanston! We retreated to the short-lived calm conditions at mid elevations and watched at a safe distance as four natural avalanches occurred on steep wind loaded slopes, one drainage to the west of us. Later in the day, winds were getting into mid elevation terrain and natural avalanches occurred in more protected terrain as well. Today’s avalanches were up to 4’ deep and 100-200’ wide, piling up deep piles of debris.

The past month or so, I’ve been talking about how dangerous the avalanche conditions would be if it ever decided to snow again or if the winds blew…. well my friends the time is upon us! Today’s strong winds resulted in several natural avalanches and this is only a precursor of what’s to come. With a good shot of snow on the way, all of the dangerous slabs formed today will be hard to detect by morning. This false sense of strong snow under your machine, skis or board will lure you well onto a steep slope before it fails. Avalanches triggered on Friday have the possibility of being large, dangerous and unsurvivable. You’ll need to avoid being on, connected to, or underneath any steep slope.     

 

Bottom Line:

The avalanche danger is HIGH on all slopes steeper than about 30 degrees in steepness, especially those with recent deposits of wind drifted snow. Avalanches will occur with human and natural triggers.  Backcountry travel is not recommended.

 

Mountain Weather:

A strong Pacific cold front will bring heavy snow to the mountains tonight through Friday. Snow will develop around midnight tonight ahead of the front then increase as the cold front passes between 600 and 700 AM Friday. The snow will be heavy at times through the day Friday then turn showery Friday evening. Some additional accumulation is possible Friday evening before the snow tapers off after midnight. Storm totals will be in the 10-14” range. The strong winds ahead of the front will continue until the cold front arrives...then winds will shift to northwest and diminish. Weak high pressure briefly returns to the area Saturday with a break in the action...then the next storm brings more wind and the potential of heavy snow back to the northern Utah Mountains late Saturday night through Sunday. Another even stronger storm is expected to impact the area next Tuesday and Wednesday. 

 

Announcements:

I completed a preliminary investigation on the avalanche accident that occurred on Saturday Feb.17th in Buck Basin and it can be found here. Also there have been a number of close calls and unintentionally human triggered avalanches across the state in the past few days and pictures with descriptions of the events can be found here.

 

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 Saturday February 24,2007.

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

1-888-999-4019.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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