Avalanche Advisory
Advisory: Uintas Area Mountains Issued by Craig Gordon for Sunday - March 19, 2017 - 4:49am
bottom line

With a sub-par refreeze, the avalanche danger quickly rises to MODERATE and human triggered avalanches are POSSIBLE. As the day heats up, you'll want to get off of and out from under on all steep, sun-exposed slopes. Once triggered, today's wet slides may fan out, entraining more snow than you might expect.




current conditions

High clouds drifted through the region late yesterday, but are just starting to thin out and push east. It's balmy, with temperatures a few degrees warmer than yesterday at this time, barely dipping into the mid 30's and low 40's. Southwest winds are a nuisance, blowing 35-50 mph along the high ridges. Riding and turning conditions are a bit underwhelming and have taken a hard hit. As far as corn harvest futures are concerned... upper elevation sunny slopes are still a bit immature and slightly punchy and I think the shallow surface refreeze won't last too long on low and mid elevation south facing terrain. On the north half of the compass, it's hit or miss, though you'll still find patches of shallow, dense powder on wind sheltered, upper elevation slopes.


Above... 24 hour data from Windy Peak (10,600') and the Trial Lake snotel site (9,992') reflecting a marginal overnight refreeze.

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


Wow... the Uinta's are white and the views... well they're stunning!


The trailheads have taken a bit of a beating this week and getting to the high terrain is brutal before the snow surface loosens up. As far as the date stamp is concerned... Ted borrowed the camera from a guy named McFly :)

Snowpack observations and trip reports are found here.
recent activity



More the exception than the rule... Ted found this couple day old sled triggered pocket on a repeater path of Gold Hill. Not overly huge, but none-the-less a red flag, breaking to the ground on weak, dry facets.

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

This morning the snow surface is firm and crunchy, so along with a great deal of patience, you'll definately need to drop the scratchers. Today's wet avalanche activity larely depends on the balance of sun, cloud cover, and wind. However, with two consequtive nights of shallow refreeze, the snowpack is going to go off early today. Remember- this is the time of year when you wanna think about your end of the day exit strategy. As the snow turns damp, manky, or unsupportable you'll need to get off of and out from under steep, sunny slopes and avoid terrain traps like gullies and road cuts where tree snapping, cement-like debris can stack up very deeply.

More the rule than the execption... Dan found this wet avalanche Friday on an east facing slope near the Mirror Lake Highway at appoximately 10,000'.
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 years corni are beautiful and they come in all shapes and sizes, some are larger than others. In either case, these unpredictable pieces of snow are releasing on their own accord and breaking further back than you might expect. Of course, you don't want to be on the receiving end of one of these boxcar-like monsters.

weather

It the near-term.... not much change in the weather department. Today, look for partly cloudy skies, temperatures reaching into the low 60's, and southwest winds gusting into 50's and 60's along the high ridges. About the same for Monday. A cooler, more active storm track sets it's sights on Utah starting Wednesday. I'll have more details on timing and strength for tomorrow's update.

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 Monday March 20th.