Avalanche Advisory
Advisory: Uintas Area Mountains Issued by Craig Gordon for Sunday - January 4, 2015 - 5:42am
bottom line

In general you'll find a MODERATE avalanche danger on recently wind loaded slopes at upper elevations and human triggered avalanches are possible. While not widespread and making up a small portion of the terrain available to ride in, slides triggered in steep, rocky, upper elevation terrain, have the potential to break to the ground, especially on slopes facing North, Northeast, and East.

A LOW avalanche danger exists on low and mid elevation slopes.
special announcement

Mountain users: Please keep eyes out for missing police officer, 5'9" 160 lb white male, blue Dodge diesel truck w shell http://ow.ly/GJXB3
current conditions

A moist northwest flow over the region brought a few inches of snow yesterday, and this morning skies are mostly cloudy and temperatures in the low 20's. The west-northwest winds are getting old, averaging 15-25 mph at most locations, gusting into the 40's and 50's along the high peaks. Unfortunately, big, open, upper elevation terrain has seen some wind damage. However, lose some elevation, get into wind sheltered terrain, and the snow is cold and creamy.

Lots of wind jacked snow in open terrain throughout the range. Ted was in Whitney Basin Friday. His trip report is found here.
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

By late yesterday, new snow coupled with strong west-northwest winds, created drifts nearly a foot deep along the leeward side of upper elevation ridges. Winds continued to crank overnight and I suspect today's slabs are gonna be a bit deeper and also a little more connected. While mostly manageable in size and depth, they'll break at or below your skis, board, or sled, but might pack a little more punch than you'd expect. Easy to detect by their fat, rounded appearance, today you'll want to avoid any steep wind drifted slope.
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

Our second avalanche concern is less predictable and even less manageable. While the chances of triggering an avalanche that breaks to deeper buried weak layers in the snowpack are becoming less likely overtime, the consequences remain quite dangerous. The way we deal with low probability/high consequence situations in the mountains is to simply avoid them. It doesn't mean you can't ride steep terrain. Most avy savvy riders are climbing big terrain they know already avalanched to the ground earlier in the season... good call, or just boondocking in wind sheltered terrain where the snow quality is much better. Here's a great video illustrating the kind of avalanche dragon we're dealing with.
weather

A moist, west-northwest flow over the region keeps clouds and the chance of light snow in our hood for the next two days. Winds average in the 30's and 40's with gusts in the 60's along the highest peaks. Temperatures rise into the mid 20's and dip into the teens overnight. Winds relax late Monday, high pressure builds, and a significant warm up is on tap for Wednesday and Thursday with highs in the low 40's.
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 Wednesday Jan. 7, 2015.