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 february 28, 2007

The information in this advisory expires 24 hours after the date and time it’s issued, but will be updated Saturday March 3, 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, February 28, 2007 and it’s about 7:00 am. 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. 

 

Current Conditions:

Winter roared back with a vengeance yesterday and storm totals for the past 24 hours are nearing 2’ in locations favored by a northwest flow. Starting in the southern half of the range, from Daniels Summit north to Trial Lake, most upper elevation slopes received 6”-10” of new snow since yesterday morning. However the real winners out of this storm are the Whitney Basin, upper Weber Canyon and Chalk Creek drainages where 10” fell at the trailheads and nearly 18” at the upper elevations. In the wake of the storm, winds have been quiet for most of the night, but are now picking up and blowing out of the southeast at speeds of 15-20 mph along the high ridges. Under clear skies, temperatures are just beginning to crawl out of negative territory and are hovering right around zero degrees.

 

Avalanche Conditions:

What a storm…yesterday’s intense cold front slammed into the mountains with raging winds gusting into the upper 50’s and snowfall rates of 3” an hour! Just getting to the hills was an epic adventure unto itself. While only a handful of folks were able to get out into the mountains yesterday, several reports from very experienced travelers indicate widespread cracking and collapsing of the snowpack, even on relatively low angle slopes. With a little bit of visibility today we may be able to see how our fragile snowpack faired to the sudden wallop from yesterday’s storm. My gut feeling is many slopes avalanched naturally, but those that didn’t are waiting for one of us to come along and kick the legs out from under the slab which now rests in a tenuous balance. Triggering an avalanche today could have devastating consequences because it may break into deeper buried weak layers which are now covered over with several feet of new snow. The key to riding safely today is going to rest on making good terrain choices and staying off of and out from under steep slopes. You may still be able to trigger avalanches from a distance and clues such as whoomphing noises or collapses and cracking in the snowpack are giant red flags. Remember- the biggest clue to avalanches…is avalanches. If you’re seeing natural avalanche activity on the same types of slopes you want to ride on, you’ll want to think about altering your travel plans.

 

Bottom Line:

At mid and upper elevations the avalanche danger is CONSIDERABLE on all slopes steeper than about 35 degrees, especially those facing the north half of the compass with both old and recent deposits of wind drifted snow. A CONSIDERABLE avalanche danger means human triggered avalanches are probable, natural avalanches possible.

At low elevations the avalanche danger is MODERATE on northerly facing slopes steeper than about 35 degrees with both old and recent wind drifts and human triggered avalanches are possible.

 

Mountain Weather:

A short-lived break in the action this morning will be followed by another cold system dropping into the area late this afternoon. Look for increasing clouds with snow showers likely by this evening lasting through early Friday morning. Storm totals should be around a foot. Temperatures will remain cold with highs at 8,000’ in the upper teens and at 10,000’ near 12 degrees. Overnight lows near zero are expected. Winds should remain relatively light for most of the day, out of the north and northeast, but will shift to the west and increase this afternoon with gusts in the mid 30’s along the high ridges. As the trough begins to move east Friday, scattered snow showers are still possible. High pressure builds for the weekend.

 

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 March 3, 2007.

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

1-888-999-4019.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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