Wasatch
Cache and Uinta National Forests 
In partnership with:
Tri-City
Performance, Polaris, the
avalanche advisory
wednesday march 28, 2007
The information in this advisory expires 24 hours after
the date and time it’s issued, but will be updated Saturday March 31, 2007.
Good Morning! This is Craig
Gordon with the
This
advisory covers the terrain from Daniels Summit, to
Current Conditions:
Better late than never… our much talked about storm finally
arrived yesterday afternoon and it looks like it should linger through
Thursday. Wet heavy snow fell at the lower elevations and new snow totals at
the trailheads are right around 3”. Up high however, close to 9” of lighter
density snow has stacked up and temperatures crashed when the cold front
arrived. Currently at 10,000’ it’s in the upper teens, in the low 20’s at 8,000’
and winds are generally out of the south, blowing 10-15 mph along the ridges.
Avalanche Conditions:
This storm was kinda like
our winter. You think it’s gonna happen, but it never quite materializes like
it’s supposed to. While storm totals are a bit disappointing, there’s enough
new snow to freshen things up a bit and slopes that didn’t have old tracks on
them prior to the storm will be the ticket today. The wet instabilities we were
worried about a week ago are locked in place for the time being and for now it’s back to a winter-like snowpack. Yesterday it was wild
in the mountains with an occasional burst of lightening and raging southerly
winds. It nuked for most of the day blowing in the 40’s and 50’s with gusts in
the upper 60’s along the high ridges, but since there was hardly any snow
available to blow around, old wind drifts won’t be a problem today. In
addition, once the storm arrived, winds quickly died down, making today’s avalanche
problems pretty straight forward and very manageable. Today I’d expect you’ll
find sluffing
on steep slopes and an occasional shallow wind drift may have formed early this
morning on the leeward
side of upper elevation ridges. In either case a well placed slope cut
will give you a good feel for the stability of the slope. Even though the
avalanche conditions seem pretty benign, as always, think about the consequences
of triggering even a shallow avalanche and going for an unexpected ride down a
steep slope.
Bottom Line:
On most slopes throughout
the range the avalanche danger is generally LOW today.
Above tree-line there are
pockets of MODERATE avalanche danger on slopes steeper than about 35
degrees, especially those with recent deposits of wind drifted snow. A MODERATE avalanche
danger means human triggered avalanche are possible.
Mountain Weather:
A cold
and slow moving Pacific storm will hang around the next 24 hours with our best
shot of snow occurring today. It’s a complex system, which I never trust, so
snow totals are dependant on the track of the storm. None-the-less we should
see snow throughout the day with an additional 4”-6” a good bet. Temperatures
will remain cold with highs at 8,000’ dropping throughout the day, only reaching
into the lower 20’s and at 10,000’ in the mid teens. Overnight lows should be
right around 15 degrees. As the center of the low drifts it will give us a
variety of wind directions, first from the northeast this morning, becoming
northwest later in the day and finally turning north late tonight into Thursday
as the storm exits the state. Along the ridges wind speeds should remain in the
10-20 mph range with a few gusts in the low 30’s. Tonight an additional 2”-4”
of snow is expected, then scattered snow showers by Thursday morning. Temperatures
will warm into the mid 20’s on Thursday and partly cloudy skies with highs in
the low to mid 30’s are expected for Friday.
Announcements:
I completed a preliminary
investigation on the avalanche accident that occurred on Saturday Feb.17th
in
The
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 31, 2007.
This advisory is also available by calling
1-800-648-7433 or
1-888-999-4019.
.