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| Advisory: Uintas Area Mountains | Issued by Trent Meisenheimer for Sunday - March 20, 2016 - 5:37am |
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bottom line In the wind zone at and above treeline, a MODERATE avalanche danger exists and human triggered avalanches are possible on steep, wind drifted slopes, especially those that face the north half of the compass. Any slide that breaks to old snow near the ground has the potential to break deeper and wider than you might expect and can quickly ruin your day. Out of the wind the avalanche danger is generally LOW.
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special announcement Huge thanks to everyone at Park City Powder Cats for your very generous donation yesterday to the Avalanche Center. We deeply appreciate our great partnership and everything you do for our organization... y'all rock! Another shout out is to Craig Gordon and our amazing sled loaner program. It allows us to get into the mountains and see the current conditions which helps us make more accurate forecast. Weller Recreation and Tricity Polaris we can't thank you enough!
Photo from Mirror Lake taken yesterday. Please help guide our discussions of website maintenance, upgrades or possible changes in coming years. Take this brief survey. As a way of saying thanks we'll be raffling a free avalanche class and other free stuff like hats, beanies, water bottles, etc. |
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current conditions We have another beautiful sunny day on tap for the Uinta's. The west southwest winds are currently blowing 10-20mph with the occasional gust into the upper 20's across the high elevation terrain. Temperatures remain cold this morning and 10,000' temps are hovering in the mid to upper 20's. Riding conditions are about as good as it gets. Five star powder can be found on many aspects at upper elevations.
Photo: showing the snow surface and the excellent riding conditions found in the Uinta mountains. Uinta weather station network info is found here. Trip reports and observations are found here.
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recent activity No new avalanche activity was reported from the backcountry yesterday. But, our main man Ted Scroggin has a great observation 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.
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| type | aspect/elevation | characteristics |
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LIKELIHOOD
 LIKELY
UNLIKELY
SIZE
 LARGE
SMALL
TREND
 INCREASING DANGER
SAME
DECREASING DANGER
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description
I think a lot of our wind drift issues are starting to relax and the snowpack is feeling comfortable in its own skin. While today's slabs might be a little stubborn, if triggered they'll have some mass behind them and they'll be packing a punch. If your travels take you into big, upper elevation terrain today.... Ride defensively and have an escape plan. Your best plan of attack is avoiding any fat, rounded piece of snow, especially if it sounds or feels hollow like a drum. The most obvious avalanche problem today will be the wind slabs at upper elevations. However, don't forget that shallow snowpack areas still exist and there is still a chance for triggering an avalanche that breaks to old snow. Steep, upper elevation, north facing slopes, especially those with a thin, weak snowpack need to be carefully evaluated or better yet, simply avoid terrain with these characteristics.
Ted Scroggin with a great photo of a cornice that fell naturally and triggered a small wind slab that left a decent pile of debris. Read the rest of his observation here. Cornices have grown quite large the past few days and may break back further than you might expect. Best to avoid being on or underneath these boxcar sized pieces of snow.
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weather Plenty of sunshine this morning with rapidly rising temperatures. By late afternoon we should see increasing wind and few clouds moving into the region as another storm approaches. Winds will remain out of the south west in the 10-20 mph range with the occasional gust into the 20's and 30's at upper elevations. Temperatures climb into the low to mid 40's and the overnight low will dip back into the 20's. By Monday morning we should see a change in the pattern and a decent shot of snow is on tap for Tuesday. Stay tuned.
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| 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, March 20th.
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