Avalanche Advisory
Advisory: Uintas Area Mountains Issued by Craig Gordon for Saturday - March 15, 2014 - 5:43am
bottom line

Above treeline in the wind zone, a CONSIDERABLE avalanche danger exists and human triggered avalanches are likely on all steep, wind drifted slopes. Once initiated, today's avalanches can break deep and wide, creating a very dangerous slide.

Mid elevation terrain offers a MODERATE avalanche danger and human triggered avalanches are possible on steep slopes with recent deposits of wind drifted snow.

The avalanche danger is generally LOW in mid and low elevation wind sheltered terrain.

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special announcement

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current conditions

Last night's powerful ridgetop winds blew through the region like a cross fire hurricane. Ramping up around 8:00 PM, west and northwest winds blew 50-80 mph 'til nearly midnight, but have been slowly decreasing and are currently blowing 30-40 along the high peaks. Unfortunately, the storm only delivered an inch or two of snow. The amazing snow surface conditions of the past few days took a hard hit on upper elevation wind exposed slopes, but lose a bit of elevation and you'll find soft, settled powder on wind sheltered, shady slopes.

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

Click here for trip reports and avalanche observations.
recent activity

The Uinta's continue to produce tree snapping slides.

More avalanche activity is found here.
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

We haven't seen or heard of any recent avalanche breaking to old snow near the ground since about midweek. And even that slide was a peculiar outlier, occurring in very steep, rocky terrain, where the snowpack was unusually thin and weak. On the surface it may seem like we're starting to turn the corner towards stability, but reality suggests nothing has changed with the snowpack structure. The bottom line is- steep, rocky terrain facing the north half of the compass is our problem child, and once triggered, avalanches can still break deep and wide. The only way to manage unmanageable avalanches that break to the ground is with your terrain choices. It's easy.... simply avoid being on or underneath steep wind drifted slopes, especially those that haven't avalanched all season.

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Avalanche Problem 2
type aspect/elevation characteristics
LIKELIHOOD
LIKELY
UNLIKELY
SIZE
LARGE
SMALL
TREND
INCREASING DANGER
SAME
DECREASING DANGER
over the next 24 hours
description

West and northwest winds raged last night, forming drifts lower down-slope than you might expect as well as around terrain features like chutes and gullies. While mostly confined to upper elevation terrain facing the south and east half of the compass, you'll want to avoid any fat looking, rounded piece of snow, especially if it sounds hollow like a drum. Once triggered, a fresh wind drift could get quickly out of hand if it breaks into weak, old snow buried deep in the snowpack.
weather

Look for sunny skies with cool daytime highs only reaching into the low 30's. Northwest winds are going to be a nuisance along the high ridges, blowing 30-50 mph, but should decrease late in the day. High pressure moves overhead on Sunday and it'll be a beautiful spring day, before a quick hitting storm slides through the region Monday and Tuesday, delivering a few inches of snow.
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]

Donate to your favorite non-profit –The Utah Avalanche Center. The UAC depends on contributions from users like you to support our work.

Benefit the Utah Avalanche Center when you buy or sell on ebay - set the Utah Avalanche Center as a favorite non-profit in your ebay account here and click on ebay gives when you buy or sell.  You can choose to have your seller fees donated to the UAC, which doesn't cost you a penny.

Utah Avalanche Center mobile app - Get your advisory on your iPhone along with great navigation and rescue tools.

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 Sunday Mar. 16, 2014 or sooner if conditions warrant.