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.
.