Avalanche Advisory
Advisory: Uintas Area Mountains Issued by Craig Gordon for Wednesday - February 21, 2018 - 2:42am
bottom line

In mid and upper elevation terrain, especially in the wind zone at and above treeline, the avalanche danger is MODERATE. Human triggered avalanches are possible on steep wind drifted slopes, facing the north half of the compass, particularly those with an easterly component to their aspect. An avalanche triggered today can quickly get out of hand if it breaks into weak layers of snow, now buried deeper in our snowpack.

Lose some elevation or switch aspect and you'll find LOW avalanche danger at lower elevation wind sheltered terrain and on most slopes facing the south half of the compass.
current conditions

Skies cleared overnight and temperatures crashed harder than a Dow selloff, cratering to -15 degrees in the coldest areas across the region. Southwest winds bumped into the 30's along the high ridges yesterday afternoon for a few hours, but calmed down in the evening, switched to the south, and are now blowing 15-20 mph. Sunday's storm favored the North Slope with a solid 16" of ultra-light, 5% density snow stacking up. Terrain south of Trial Lake got skunked and storm totals are closer to 8". In either case, it's in your face, over-the-hood, and yes... over the head.

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

Ted was near Gold Hill Monday and found deep, mostly stable snow. More on his travels here.

You can find a great body of recent trip reports, observations, and snow data here.


recent activity


Michael J was near Hoyt Peak on Monday and found tender corni which helped initiate sluffing and shallow soft slabs on steep slopes. More on his travels 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

Recent wind drifts were less sensitive yesterday, but still cracking well out in front of your skis, board, or sled. I bet most of these instabilities relaxed overnight and might be locked up with the very cold temperatures, but there may be a drift or two that's still reactive to our additional weight. Found mostly on the leeward side of upper elevation ridges, tender drifts may also be encountered near the entrances of steep chutes and on the sides of gully walls. So it's not completely straiight-forward and today you'll want to gather as much information as possible. Be on the lookout for clues to unstable snow such as shooting cracks and tweak small test slopes like road banks and see how they're reacting before getting into steep, commiting terrain.
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

Across the range it's a tale of two snowpacks-

Where the pack is deep, it's comfortable in its own skin and can take a good thump. As a result, shallow slabs breaking within the new storm snow (as seen in Pete's image above) were the flavor of the day on Monday and I think that's the theme again today..

However, where the pack is shallow, (like this slide that Pete triggered Monday) the jury is still out. Suspect areas include terrain that has already avalanched this year along with a vast majority of steep, shady slopes on the south half of the range... from about Trial Lake through Strawberry. As always in this case, the best offense is a good defense. Simply avoid steep, rocky, wind drifted slopes, especially if they've got a "trapdoor" or punchy feeling.

weather

Expect sunny skies this morning with day time highs barely cracking into the teens. West and southwest winds remain well-behaved and blow in the 20's along the high peaks. Clouds increase late in the day as a weak weather system brings a chance of snow showers late in the day with only minor accumulation. Another system slides through the region on Friday which might offer a better shot of snow.
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 February 22nd, 2018.

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.