Avalanche Advisory
Advisory: Uintas Area Mountains Issued by Craig Gordon for Sunday - November 16, 2014 - 6:35am
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In general there's really not that much snow to recreate on and the avalanche danger is LOW, However, even a small slide will expose a myriad of hidden obstacles, resulting in a trauma inducing injury.
special announcement

WE ARE ISSUING INTERMITTENT ADVISORIES. THE NEXT ADVISORY WILL BE LATER THIS WEEK AS WEATHER CONDITIONS WARRANT.

While we're waiting for winter, save the date and join us Nov. 22nd as the Alpine Assassins AA5 Utah film premiere rolls out at the Egyptian Theater in Ogden Utah. Doors open at 6:00 and Movies will start at 7:00. Lots of door prizes, raffles, and giveaways.

Also... now is the time to contact us if you want to schedule a free avalanche awareness talk for your group, club, or shop.

Shoot me an email- [email protected]
current conditions

Yesterday's storm delivered 4"-8" of new snow throughout the range, however the North Slope got clobbered with over a foot. Skies cleared last night and temperatures are brutally cold. Currently, trailheads are in negative territory, hovering around -10 degrees. Along the ridges, northwest winds are blowing 25-35 mph giving us windchill values near -35 degrees. Early season riding and turning conditions are extremely limited to a few upper elevation north facing slopes.


recent activity

One small pocket was triggered in the Murdock Bowl Glades right near Bald Mountain Pass. Not particularly large, but could take you for a knee tweaking ride into a group of trees.
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

Remember- just cause you can see it from the road doesn't necessarily mean it's safe.

Your choices for riding or turning are limited to a few patches of high elevation snow facing the north half of the compass... and that's exactly the type of terrain where you could trigger an avalanche today. Problem is, underneath this white facade is early season snow that grew weak and sugary and the strong winds the past few days have formed a supportable wind slab on top.

We've got a classic early season setup- strong snow on weak snow. Today, you'll want to look for and avoid any fat, rounded piece of snow, especially if it sounds hollow like a drum. Remember- clues like shooting cracks and booming collapses or whoomphing sounds are huge clues to unstable snow. Click here to see Ted's great report from yesterday.

There's not much snow and triggering a slide will immediately ruin your day, taking you for a nasty ride through rocks and stumps barely hidden underneath the shallow snowpack, resulting in a season ending injury.
weather

Northwest winds should start to relax into the 15-25 mph range throughout the day as high pressure builds in the wake of yesterday's storm. Temperatures will be slow to rebound and will barely crack into the single digits before crashing into negative territory again tonight. No huge storms in sight, but an unsettled pattern towards the end of the week might bring in a series of storms giving us small doses of accumulating 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 Saturday Nov. 22, 2014.