Avalanche Advisory
Advisory: Uintas Area Mountains Issued by Craig Gordon for Saturday - January 28, 2017 - 3:57am
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Heads up... avalanche conditions will be changing today as the snow sees strong sun and warming temperatures.

Pockets of CONSIDERABLE danger exist in mid and upper elevation terrain, at and above treeline. While making up a small portion of the terrain available to ride in today, human triggered avalanches are LIKELY on steep slopes, especially those on the leeward side of upper elevation ridges. Any avalanche that breaks to weaker snow, now buried deep in the snowpack will get out of hand quickly, resulting in a dangerous slide.

A MODERATE avalanche danger is found on steep, lower elevation terrain and human triggered avalanches are POSSIBLE on steep, shady slopes.

Most low elevation slopes facing the south half of the compass offer LOW avalanche danger.




special announcement

Do you buy groceries at Smiths? When you register your Smith’s rewards card with their Community Rewards program, they will donate to the Utah Avalanche Center whenever you make a purchase. It's easy, only takes a minute, and doesn't cost you anything. Details here.

Also... if you're at the Nobletts Trailhead killing some time, stop by our Beacon Basin and practice your avy rescue skills for a few minutes before heading out on the snow.

And finally...we still have a few spots open for our February 9th and 11th sled specific avy and riding skills work shop. Details are found here.

current conditions

Skies are clear and temperatures increased by about 10 degrees overnight which gets us out of the icebox and into the low teens. Unfortunately, northeast winds blew steadily along the high ridges since early yesterday morning and our big open bowls have taken a hard hit. However, it doesn't take much effort to find wind sheltered terrain where you'll be rewarded with deep, light, cold, pow.


24 hour run of Lofty Lake Peak wind data above.

Real time wind, snow, and temperatures for the Uinta's are found here

Ted was in the Whitney basin and found stable snow and amazing riding conditions. His trip report is found here.

Snowpack observations and trip reports are found here.

recent activity


I rolled up to this freshly triggered slide Thursday near Wolf Creek Pass just as the dust was settling. It was a nice sized pocket measuring 2 feet deep and 150 feet wide, only running 100 feet vertically due to terrain features. This slide occurred on a wind sheltered North aspect at 9,500 feet and failed on well preserved Surface Hoar. This is the kind of avalanche issue we're dealing with the next couple days. (Gordon photo)

A full list of Uinta 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

For the past 24 hours, upper elevation, northeast winds have been blowing, loading slopes in unusual locations. Our manageable avalanche problem today are fresh drifts along the leeward side of mid and upper elevation ridges and around terrain features like chutes and gullies. Todays slabs might be a bit more stubborn than the past few days, but they're manageable because they'll break at or below our skis, board, or sled. However, once triggered any avalanche can grow into a bigger problem if it breaks into weaker snow now buried several feet deep in the snowpack.

Cross-loaded, upper elevation chutes and gullies like the terrain pictured above, are the kind of places you could trigger a fresh wind drift today. (Boyer photo)

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

This is where it gets tricky. Our unmanageable avalanche problem is harder to detect unless we spend a little time and dig into the snow to investigate. What you'll find with minimal effort are weak, sugary, near surface facets and surface hoar. These notoriously tricky and persistent weak layers are now buried a couple feet deep in our snowpack and until recently, have been pretty well-behaved. However, now that the storm snow is starting to consolidate and settle, these dormant layers are coming back to life. Adding to the complexity is that this layering isn't widespread and found mostly in terrain where these fragile crystals didn't get destroyed by the wind prior to last weeks big storm. It's a deceptive setup for sure, but it doesn't have to be a roll of the dice and the solution for the next couple of days is easy. Either do a little homework, dig around and identify slopes that have a suspect snowpack or simply avoid being on, under, or connected to steep slopes, especially those facing the north half of the compass. Remember- any avalanche that breaks into weak layers buried deep in the snowpack will be dangerous.


Above... cracking in front of your skis, board, or sled is a huge clue to unstable snow. JG had a good take on our current state of snowpack affairs. He commented, "The storm slab is becoming more cohesive and we were getting large areas of connected snow to collapse and I can see a potential for avalanches becoming larger due to the increased connectivity of the slab."



With a little homework you can clearly identify the weak snow. In this pit, clean shears reveal a persistent buried weak layer.

weather

Sunny skies are on tap with temperatures climbing into the upper 20's and low 30's. Northerly winds are gonna be a nuisance along the ridges where they'll be blowing in the mid to upper 30's. Overnight lows dip into the teens and winds begin to relax somewhat. Not much going on in the weather department the next couple of days. It looks like sunny skies and warming temperatures in the mountains with increasing valley gunk.

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]

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 Sunday January 29th.