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

saturday march 17, 2007

The information in this advisory expires 24 hours after the date and time it’s issued, but will be updated Sunday March 18, 2007.

 

Good Morning and Happy St. Patrick’s Day! 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 Saturday, March 17, 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.

 

A SPECIAL AVALANCHE ADVISORY HAS BEEN ISSUED FOR THE MOUNTAINS OF NORTHERN UTAH, INCLUDING THE WESTERN UINTA’S, FOR THE WEEKEND. A WEAK SNOW PACK AND RECORD BREAKING WARM TEMPERATURES HAVE CREATED A CONSIDERABLE TO HIGH AVALANCHE DANGER...WITH BOTH HUMAN TRIGGERED AND NATURAL AVALANCHES PROBABLE. THESE DANGEROUS AVALANCHES HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO BE VERY LARGE AND LONG RUNNING. STEEP SLOPES AND AREAS BELOW STEEP SLOPES SHOULD BE AVOIDED. PEOPLE WITHOUT EXCELLENT BACKCOUNTRY AVALANCHE AND ROUTE FINDING SKILLS SHOULD STAY OUT OF THE BACKCOUNTRY THIS WEEKEND.

 

Current Conditions:

A strong upper ridge over the region is giving us clear skies and very warm temperatures. After yesterday’s blistering highs of 60 degrees at 8,000’ we’ve experienced a marginal refreeze overnight. Currently at the trailheads it’s 33 degrees and the same at 10,000’. There is a bit of a temperature inversion and up at Windy Peak near 11,000’ it’s 37 degrees. Winds along the high ridges are blowing out of the north-northwest at speeds of 15-25 mph. Supportable conditions will be short-lived today, but you should be able to squeak out a few early morning corn runs on east through southwest facing aspects before it turns to bottomless glop by about noon.

 

Avalanche Conditions:

The past few days have produced both record setting temperatures and large natural avalanches throughout the range, especially at mid and lower elevations. Yesterday, Ted and I were in Weber Canyon and in addition to pockety wet slabs running near the ground at lower elevations, we noticed a monster, tree snapping avalanche above the Smith-Moorehouse Reservoir which was about 200’ wide, taking out the entire seasons’ snowpack. The tricky part of the equation today is the snow surface will feel hard and supportable, but underneath the supportable “melt-freeze” corn slab, the sugary facets formed way back in January are weak and saturated with water. Today it’ll be possible to ride on a slope and feel confident with its strength. However, wet slabs work much like their dangerous winter cousin- dry snow hard slab avalanches. Once you find a weak spot in the snowpack, it’ll collapse, and in this case you’ll trigger a large, dangerous and unsurvivable wet slab avalanche. Wet slabs are nothing to mess with because the consequences are so severe. Not only do these slow moving giants snap trees like tooth picks, they’ll grab a hold of you and your machine, making it impossible to get out of the cement-like snow. In addition, wet avalanches pile up huge amounts of debris, especially in terrain traps such as gullies or steep road cuts. Today you’ll need to carefully assess the terrain you’re riding in and take the time to dig into the snowpack to see what kind of snow you’re riding on. If you’ve got a strong supportable slab on top of weak, wet sugary facets… you’ve got a problem. The best bet is to stay of off and out from under any steep slope, particularly during the heat of the day.

 

Bottom Line:

The danger of wet avalanche activity will rise from CONSIDERABLE this morning- meaning human triggered avalanches are probable and natural avalanches possible- to HIGH during the heat of the day on steep sun exposed slopes at all elevations. A HIGH avalanche danger means both human triggered and natural avalanches are likely.

 

Mountain Weather:

Mostly sunny skies and unseasonably warm temperatures are slated for today and tomorrow. Highs at 8,000’ will reach into the mid to upper 50’s and at 10,000’ in the upper 40’s. Overnight lows hover right around freezing. Winds should become more westerly as the day wares on and will begin to die down, blowing 10-20 mph along the ridges. A weak weather disturbance will pass through by Sunday afternoon, giving us some clouds and slight cooling. A much stronger Pacific system will move onto the West Coast on Monday and increase the southwest flow across Utah by late in the day and Monday night. This storm should dig and split as it tracks through the Great Basin. The associated cold front will reach northern Utah by Tuesday afternoon, producing a period of significant snow and much colder temperatures.

 

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 Sunday March 18, 2007.

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

1-888-999-4019.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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