Avalanche Advisory
Advisory: Uintas Area Mountains Issued by Craig Gordon for Wednesday - December 20, 2017 - 3:12am
bottom line

In the wind zone, at and above treeline, I expect the avalanche danger to rise to CONSIDERABLE as the storm evolves and snow stacks up. By days end, natural avalanches are possible and human triggered avalanches likely on steep, wind drifted slopes, especially those facing the north half of the compass.

Mid and lower elevation shady slopes will get in on the act too. By late in the day, you can expect to find MODERATE avalanche danger and human triggered slides become possible on steep slopes with recent deposits of wind drifted snow.

South facing terrain, especially at mid and lower elevations offers LOW avalanche danger.




current conditions

Clouds started streaming into the region late yesterday and thickened overnight ahead of a cold storm slated to slide through the area later today. Southwest winds are cranking into the 30's and 40's along the high ridges and temperatures are in the mid and upper mid 20's. Riding and turning conditions have been quite good, despite the lack of fresh snow. Average snow depths are in the 18"-24" range.


Above are 24 hour temperatures and snow depth from Trial Lake along with winds and temperatures from Windy Peak. More remote Uinta weather stations are found here

Sure it's been a lean winter so far. But if it ain't gonna snow, this weeks sunny skies and shallow, loud powder were any easy replacement.


With it's easy access, Wolf Creek Pass is a seamless pre or post work grab. However, with changing weather on tap later today, remember... just 'cause you can see your rig from the ridge, doesn't mean the snowpack is good to go or shares your same level of stoke.

Lots of great trip reports this week are found here.

recent activity


No recent avalanche activity to report. Ted did find this old pocket near Gold Hill yesterday and commented that slopes which avalanched earlier this season are quite shallow and weak. These are the types of slopes that could come back to life early in the storm cycle. (Scroggin photo)

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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

Winds are cranking at all elevations and once the storm arrives, they'll have plenty of light density snow to work with. Usually this is a manageable avalanche problem, but given this seasons fragile surface snow, it won't take much coaxing to initiate small avalanches. The bad news... the weak, surface snow is on all shady slopes and this setup increases the possibility of triggering avalanches from low on the slope or from a distance. Clues to unstable snow include shooting cranks and whoomphing sounds or collapses of the snowpack. The bummer with a shallow snowpack and low tide conditions is, triggering even a small slide greatly increases your chances of slamming into a season ending rock or stump.

The good news... your exit strategy is simple and you can still have a blast today by avoiding steep, shady terrain facing the north half of the compass. South facing slopes like the one pictured above with little or no old snow are gonna be the ticket.

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

Here's where it gets tricky. We've got a complex snowpack with a myriad of crusts and weak, sugary snow sandwiched in between. This is the kind of combination when I see the vast majority of close calls and near misses in the western Uinta's. Persistent weaknesses in the snowpack complicate the avalanche stability picture because this structure allows you to get well out onto the slope before it fails. Once initiated, an avalanche triggered today could quickly get of hand as it breaks to weaker snow near the ground. Remember- there are plenty of sunny slopes you can ride throughout the range where you don't even have to deal with this issue.

The snowpit above clearly illustrates the complex snow structure on shady, north facing slopes.

weather


Today we can expect strong southwest winds blowing in the 40's and 50's along the high ridges. Temperatures remain quite mild with highs in the upper 20's before the cold front arrives later in the day, ushering in a quick hitting round of snow and temperatures crashing into the single digits. Snow totals don't look overly impressive and I'm thinking we'll squeak 3"-6" out of this storm by Thursday morning. Another cold, but dry system is on tap for this weekend.

general announcements

The information in this advisory expires 24 hours after the date and time posted, but will be updated by 7:00 AM Thursday December 21, 2017.

If you're getting out and about, please let me know what you're seeing especially if you see or trigger and avalanche. I can be reached at [email protected] or 801-231-2170

It's also a good time to set up one of our very popular avalanche awareness classes. Reach out to me and I'll make it happen.

This information does not apply to developed ski areas or highways where avalanche control is normally done. This advisory is from the U.S.D.A. Forest Service, which is solely responsible for its content. This advisory describes general avalanche conditions and local variations always occur.