Advisory: Uintas Area Mountains | utahavalanchecenter.org

Avalanche Advisory

Advisory: Uintas Area Mountains	Issued by Craig Gordon for Wednesday - December 18, 2013 - 6:25am

bottom line

While not widespread, in the wind zone, you'll find a MODERATE avalanche danger on upper elevation shady slopes and human triggered avalanches are possible. Terrain to avoid is steep, rocky, north facing slopes, especially where solid feeling slabs overlay weak sugary snow near the ground. In terrain with these characteristics avalanches have the possibility to break wider and deeper than you might expect, leading to a nasty, season ending ride through stumps, rocks, and logs barely hidden under our shallow snowpack.

Wind sheltered mid and low elevation terrain offers LOW avalanche danger.

current conditions

One last day of high pressure gives us partly skies this morning with temperatures already in the low to mid 30's. Along the high ridges, west and southwest winds are blowing 15-25 mph. Riding and turning conditions have taken a hard hit recently, but if you hunt around long enough you'll still find patches of soft, settled snow in mid elevation wind sheltered terrain. There's hope in sight as a few weak disturbances should slide through the region the next couple of days helping to provide a fresh coat of paint.

Click here for current winds, temperatures, and snowfall throughout the range.

Click here for trip reports and avalanche observations.

recent activity

No new avalanche activity to report.

Avalanche Problem 1

type	aspect/elevation	characteristics
		LIKELIHOOD LIKELY UNLIKELY SIZE LARGE SMALL TREND INCREASING DANGER SAME DECREASING DANGER over the next 24 hours
description Here it is nearly Christmas and total snow depths throughout the range only average about two feet or so... that's pretty grim considering the time of year. As we all know, shallow snow is weak snow and in much of terrain the snow structure has the consistency of rock salt and we're riding on the ground. The good news is, the key ingredient we're missing in many places is a cohesive slab. The bad news is, once winter returns from its hiatus avalanche conditions are going to get tricky and dangerous. In the meantime though, there's plenty of terrain out there to ride and not even have to worry about avalanches. However, if you're getting into steep, upper elevation, north facing terrain, especially on slopes where strong snow overlays weak sugary snow near the ground, you might be able to trigger a slide that breaks deeper and wider than you'd expect. Avoiding this terrain is the ticket and matching your terrain choices with the consequences of triggering a slide is key, particularly given the early season conditions and shallow snow cover.

type

aspect/elevation

characteristics

LIKELIHOOD

LIKELY

UNLIKELY

SIZE

LARGE

SMALL

TREND

INCREASING DANGER

SAME

DECREASING DANGER

over the next 24 hours

description

Here it is nearly Christmas and total snow depths throughout the range only average about two feet or so... that's pretty grim considering the time of year. As we all know, shallow snow is weak snow and in much of terrain the snow structure has the consistency of rock salt and we're riding on the ground. The good news is, the key ingredient we're missing in many places is a cohesive slab. The bad news is, once winter returns from its hiatus avalanche conditions are going to get tricky and dangerous. In the meantime though, there's plenty of terrain out there to ride and not even have to worry about avalanches. However, if you're getting into steep, upper elevation, north facing terrain, especially on slopes where strong snow overlays weak sugary snow near the ground, you might be able to trigger a slide that breaks deeper and wider than you'd expect. Avoiding this terrain is the ticket and matching your terrain choices with the consequences of triggering a slide is key, particularly given the early season conditions and shallow snow cover.

weather

Clouds increase as the day wares on and snow is expected to develop this evening. Looks like an inch or so tonight with an additional 2"-4" for Thursday. Temperatures will be warm, in the high 30's today with overnight lows in the mid 20's. As this impulse moves through the area, west and southwest winds could become a player, averaging 20-30 mph with gusts in the 40's along the high ridges. Scattered snow showers linger on Thursday with much cooler temperatures. A break for Friday with a similar shot of snow slated for Saturday.

general announcements

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]

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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.

I will update this advisory by 7:00 AM on Saturday Dec. 21, 2013

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