Avalanche Advisory
Advisory: Uintas Area Mountains Issued by Trent Meisenheimer for Sunday - February 28, 2016 - 5:13am
bottom line

While the avalanche danger is generally LOW, pockets of MODERATE avalanche danger exist on steep, upper elevation, leeward slopes, especially those facing the north half of the compass. Any avalanche that fails on weak, sugary snow near the ground, has the potential to break deeper and wider than you might expect.




special announcement

The Utah Avalanche Center greatly values in longtime partnership with our world-class resorts and is blowing out the remaining donated lift tickets from Alta, Snowbird, Snowbasin, Sundance, and Nordic Valley with reduced prices. Every penny you spend and turn you make benefits the Utah Avalanche Center.

Check out our Garage Sale! Chock full of sweet backcountry gear - you can find the goods on our Facebook page here.

current conditions

Should be a spectacular morning in the Uinta mountains, with sunrise temperatures in the high teens to low 20's. West-south-west winds have died down since yesterday and are blowing across the high peaks in the 15-20mph range with the occasional gust into the upper 20's. Mid and upper elevation, north facing terrain still offers soft settled powder.

Your very own avalanche forecaster Craig Gordon doing what he loves most - Very nice soft settled powder on sheltered shady slopes.

Uinta weather station network info is found here.

Trip reports and observations are found here.

recent activity

Yesterday as the west winds ramped up, it created shallow wind slabs off the lee (opposite sides) of the mountain. We had reports that these were 6-10'' inches deep and 50-80' feet wide.

We also had a small 6"-24" slab avalanche, triggered yesterday on a steep, upper elevation, northerly facing slope, isn't exactly huge by Uinta standards, but it did break to old snow near the ground and is a "repeater". Several riders had already been on the slope before it released and it's a great example of the tricky nature of persistent slabs.

Less predictable is a persistent slab like this sled triggered avalanche in Gold Hill Basin, that Ted discovered from last weekend. Breaking 150' wide and failing on weak snow near the ground, check out Ted's great write-up and very informative video here.

Recent avalanche observations are found here

See or trigger an avalanche? Shooting cracks? Hear a collapse? It's simple. Go here to fill out an observation.

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

Less predictable, is any slide that fails on weak, sugary snow near the ground, or what we call persitent slabs. Remember- persistent slabs have the potential to break deeper and wider than you might expect. Steep, rocky terrain facing the north half of the compass and particularly slopes that avalanched near the ground earlier this season should be considered suspect.

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

Yesterday as the west winds ramped up - it grabbed what little snow was available for transport and created fresh shallow wind slabs along upper elevation steep leeward slopes in the wind zone.

Wind slab photo by the greatest guy on the eastern front (Ted Scroggin) showing the type of terrain and size of these new wind slabs.

weather

Today we will have plenty of sunshine and cooler temperatures. The wind will be coming from the west and blowing 15-25mph for much of the day. We have another brush by storm that moves over the Uinta's later this evening. This could usher in a few thin high clouds as the day progresses. Sunday night into Monday will be the best chance for a few inches of new snow. High pressure and sunshine returns for Tuesday.

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 If Craig is unavailable you can reach his partner Trent at 801-455-7239, email [email protected] 

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]. To register for the first in our series of on-the-snow sled specific classes you can register here.

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 on Monday, February 29th.