Advisory: Uintas Area Mountains | Issued by Craig Gordon for January 2, 2013 - 6:20am |
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bottom line Terrain to avoid- Steep, rocky, upper elevation slopes where pockets of CONSIDERABLE danger exist and human triggered avalanches are likely. In general you'll find a MODERATE avalanche danger and human triggered avalanches are possible on wind drifted slopes. LOW avalanche danger is found in low and mid elevation, wind sheltered terrain.
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special announcement Please join us on Thursday evening, 1/24 and Saturday, 1/26 for a day of learning avalanche and advanced riding skills with Craig & Trent from the Utah Avalanche Center and Dan Gardiner and the Boondockers crew. Details and sign up here |
current conditions High pressure is building over the region and man does it feel cold out there this morning! As the gunk builds in the valley, clear skies and outstanding settled powder await in the mountains. Currently, temperatures are in the single digits and northerly winds are howling along the high ridges with hourly averages in the 20's and gusts in the 40's. Big open bowls and above treeline terrain is a bit wind jacked, but wind protected terrain offers deep, creamy powder. Recent observations can be found here. Wondering why last winter was so crazy? Click here to watch the 2011-12 Utah Winter Review... an excellent recap of last years conditions. |
recent activity No new avalanche activity to report. |
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description
The storm snow is settling out nicely, the sun is making us feel warm, and people are getting into steep terrain without incident... to most folks these seem like solid green light conditions. However, the big red flag trumping all the Kumbaya aura is the structure of our snowpack. Sure, the snow is slowly getting stronger and you can center-punch some steep terrain and be good to go. But where the snowpack remains thin and the underlying terrain is steep and rocky you can still trigger an unmanageably deep and dangerous slide. While there's miles and miles of terrain to ride today and not trigger a slide, if your travels take you into terrain with these characteristics stop for a moment and carefully assess the snowpack and think about the consequences of triggering an avalanche.
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description
East and Northeast winds have been busy at work for the past few days, creating fresh wind drifts along the leeward side of upper elevation ridges. One wild card is the unusual East wind direction which will load slopes with a westerly component to their aspect. Today you'll want to look for and avoid steep slopes with recent deposits of wind drifted snow.
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weather High pressure is building and we should see clear skies with a slow warming trend. North and northeast winds are gonna be brisk along the high ridges with gusts in the 30's and 40's throughout the day. High temperatures reach into the low 20's and overnight lows dive to near zero. It'll remain pretty quiet on the weather front through the weekend with valley inversions strengthening and clear, clam conditions in the mountains.
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general annoucements Remember your information can save lives. If you see anything we should know about, please participate in the creation of our own community avalanche advisory by submitting snow and avalanche conditions. You can call me directly at 801-231-2170, email [email protected], or email by clicking HERE This is a great time of year to schedule a free avalanche awareness presentation for your group or club. You can contact me at 801-231-2170 or email [email protected] Donate to your favorite non-profit –The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center. The UAC depends on contributions from users like you to support our work. The information in this advisory is from the US Forest Service which is solely responsible for its content. This advisory describes general avalanche conditions and local variations always occur. The information in this advisory expires 24 hours after the date and time posted, but will be updated by 7:00 AM Saturday January 5th. |