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 march 11, 2007

The information in this advisory expires 24 hours after the date and time it’s issued, but will be updated Wednesday March 14, 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, March 11, 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. Thanks to everyone for all the great avalanche info and pictures this week.

 

Current Conditions:

Yesterday’s little storm system deposited 2”-3” of medium density snow above about 9,000’ and now high pressure is building over the area this morning, resulting in clear skies and winter-like temperatures. Currently it’s 17 degrees at the trailheads and in the low 20’s along the ridges. Winds were calm overnight, but started to increase around 3:00 this morning, out of the east-northeast and are now blowing 15-25 mph along the high mountaintop locations. Our recent bout of warm temperatures has created a supportable-go-anywhere kind of base and very good riding and turning conditions will be found, particularly on shady mid and upper elevation slopes.

 

Avalanche Conditions:

Snow is a lot like people… when it goes through a rapid change it gets cranky. Today’s blistering temperatures along with a strong dose of sunshine are going to make the snowpack irritable in a couple of different ways. First the most obvious- wet avalanches will become more widespread as the day heats up, so you’ll want to get off of and out from under steep, sun-exposed slopes during the heat of the day. Remember- the sun is high and it’s penetrating even low and mid elevation north facing slopes which harbor some of our weakest snow. Wet loose avalanches triggered on steep slopes at lower elevations could break into older snow near the ground, creating a larger slide than you might expect. As the day heats up you’ll also want to avoid terrain traps such as gullies and steep road cuts where avalanche debris could pile up very deeply.

The not so obvious avalanche problem will be the ongoing possibility of triggering a deeper, hard slab avalanche which breaks into weak faceted snow in the mid portion of our snowpack, especially in upper elevation terrain on slopes facing the north half of the compass. Yesterday a rider unintentionally triggered an avalanche 2’-3’ deep, 50’ wide, running 1000’ vertically while climbing a steep, northeast facing slope at about 11,000’ in elevation in the Mary Ellen Gulch of American Fork Canyon. While miles away from the western Uinta’s, our upper elevation snowpacks are similar and I think if you were to find a weak, shallow portion of the snowpack and tickle just right, you’d be able to trigger a large dangerous avalanche today. I’d continue to steer clear of steep rocky terrain where a strong slab rests over weak, faceted sugary snow.

 

Bottom Line:

In upper elevation terrain, at and above tree-line the avalanche danger is MODERATE today on all slopes steeper than about 35 degrees with both old and recent deposits of wind drifted snow and human triggered avalanches are possible. Be aware that within this terrain there is a MODERATE danger of triggering a deep, dangerous old hard slab especially on steep, rocky upper elevation slopes with a shallow weak snowpack and large, dangerous human triggered avalanches are still possible.

Finally, the danger of wet avalanche activity will increase to CONSIDERABLE during the heat of the day on steep sun exposed slopes. A CONSIDERABLE avalanche danger means human triggered avalanches are probable, natural avalanches possible.

 

Mountain Weather:

Sunny skies, light winds and downright balmy temperatures are on tap today and Monday as the ridge of high pressure strengthens over our area. Highs at 8,000’ will be in the mid to upper 40’s and at 10,000’ near 38 degrees. Overnight lows should drop into the mid 20’s. Winds will become more northerly but should remain in the 10-20 mph range with occasional gusts in the low 30’s along the highest ridges. Monday’s weather looks similar, then a westerly flow sets up for late Tuesday ushering in colder air though little in the way of measurable snow. High pressure returns for the latter half of the week.  

 

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.

 

The Windy Peak weather station is 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 March 14, 2007.

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

1-888-999-4019.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 .