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 april 4, 2007

The information in this advisory expires 24 hours after the date and time it’s issued, but will be updated Saturday April 7, 2007.

Sunday, April 8th will be the last of our regularly scheduled advisories for the season.

 

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, April 4, 2007 and it’s about 7:00 am. 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:

High clouds developed overnight ahead of a weak weather disturbance moving our way and temperatures remained relatively mild. Currently it’s right around freezing at both the ridge top and trailhead elevations. Winds are light and southwesterly, blowing 10-15 mph at most locations, though along the highest peaks they’re in the 15-25 mph range. You can still find patches of soft snow on protected upper elevation slopes, but Monday’s wind event nuked the vast majority of good terrain. The snow is going fast, especially at lower elevations and I thought yesterday was going to be a bust as I watched sparks flying off my scratchers while weaving a path through alternating patches of white snow and black pavement. If you’re willing to endure some miserable conditions down low, you can still enjoy pretty good riding up high. With a go-just-about-anywhere kind of base, corn snow or peak bagging might be a more reliable bet.

 

Avalanche Conditions:

As far as avalanche conditions go, right now it’s a tale of two snowpacks. At the upper elevations the snow remains cold and yesterday I was amazed at how much snow got blown around during Monday’s strong wind event. Ted and I stomped around along Bald Mountain Pass and took a look at a natural avalanche which peeled off the steep rock bands on the east bowl of Murdock Peak, triggering a mid-slope hard slab, 2’ deep and about 300’ wide, though only running a short distance. This slide probably occurred sometime Saturday afternoon as a result of rapid wind loading. While many of the wind slabs out there are starting to become better behaved, I think you’ll still be able to trigger pockets large enough to knock you off your sled or skis and take you for a nasty ride. Today you’ll still want to avoid any steep upper elevation slopes that have recent deposits of wind drifted snow. In addition, before committing to a big slope, tweak a small test slope similar in aspect, elevation and slope angle and look for clues to unstable snow.

At lower and mid elevations and on steep sun-exposed slopes, the biggest avalanche concern is the possibility of triggering wet avalanches. By now you know the drill- as the snow becomes damp and gloppy avoid being on or underneath steep sunny slopes, especially during the heat of the day. Remember- this type of slide is usually slow moving, but can pile up huge amounts of debris in terrain traps such as gullies or steep road cuts.

 

Bottom Line:

On most slopes throughout the range the avalanche danger is generally LOW this morning, rising to MODERATE on steep sun-exposed slopes during the heat of the day. A MODERATE avalanche danger means human triggered avalanche are possible. 

Wind drifted slopes above tree-line, especially those steeper than about 35 degrees, have pockets of MODERATE avalanche danger. Human triggered dry snow avalanches are possible particularly on north, northeast and east facing slopes.

 

Mountain Weather:

A weak storm system will brush by the region tonight and clouds will increase throughout the day ahead of this weak feature. We might see a passing snow flurry or two before high pressure quickly rebounds for the rest of the week. It’ll remain mild with highs today reaching into the low to mid 50’s at 8,000’ and near 42 degrees at 10,000’. Overnight lows will be in the upper 20’s. Winds remain light and westerly, switching to the northwest later tonight and may gust into the low 30’s along the ridges as the cold front swings through. Sunny skies, light winds and warming temperatures are on tap for Thursday through Sunday.

 

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 removed the Windy Peak weather station for the season and want to thank Park City Powder Cats for their partnership in helping to maintain the site. We’ll have it up and running in the same location next winter.

 

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 April 7, 2007.

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

1-888-999-4019.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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