Wasatch Cache and Uinta National Forests

In partnership with: Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center, The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center and Utah State Parks.

HOLIDAY Avalanche ADVISORY

Good morning. This is Craig Gordon with the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center with your avalanche and mountain weather advisory for the western Uinta Mountains. Today is Monday, February 16, 2004 and it’s 7:30 a.m.

Current conditions:

Last nights weak weather system brought mostly cloudy skies and a trace of new snow to the region. Currently, light snow is falling, and temperatures at most mountain top locations are in the mid teens. Winds are out of the west and northwest averaging 10 mph with a few gusts in the low 20’s at the most exposed ridgeline locations. Soft, settled powder can still be found on sheltered, mid elevation slopes that face the north half of the compass. On the south facing aspects the sun has created some challenging crusts that may not soften very much today due to the lack of sunshine.

Avalanche Conditions:

No new avalanches were triggered yesterday, that I know of, and perhaps the cooler temperatures might have had something to do with the lack of activity. Or maybe people were more entertained with watching the Daytona 500 rather than being out on the snow. In any case, the instabilities that have had me tiptoeing around for the past few days are still out there and I don’t think I’d be jumping into steep slopes without carefully assessing the snowpack first. While one of our observers from the Thousand Peaks area reported an overall confidence in the snowpack, the fact of the matter is the stability pattern remains quite complex. Remember, slopes that have seen a lot of traffic this year will be much different than those that are seldom ridden on. So if you’re nosing into steep terrain, that has seen little compaction, take the time to investigate the snowpack and see what you’re dealing with before you commit to a slope. You don’t have to dig down very far, and what you’re looking for is the combination of a dense slab on top of weak snow. This is easily identifiable by doing lots of quick hand pits and where this recipe exists you could still trigger an avalanche today.

In addition the surface snow has grown weak and steep shady slopes are sluffing easily, entraining quite a bit of snow as it descends the slope. Take care not to get tangled up with one of these and go for a fast body bruising ride over a cliff band, or worse yet, get buried deep in a terrain trap such as a gully.

Finally, some isolated wind drifts have formed on the leeward side of upper elevation ridgelines and while shallow, these will be sensitive to the additional weight of a backcountry enthusiast.

Bottom Line:

The avalanche danger is MODERATE today, at and above timberline, especially on northwest through east facing slopes steeper than about 35 degrees. Human triggered avalanches are possible.

At low and mid elevations and in wind-protected terrain on slopes less steep than 35 degrees the avalanche danger is generally LOW.

Mountain Weather:

A dirty ridge will be over the region today providing mostly cloudy skies, mild temperatures, and another chance of light snow late this evening. High temperatures at 10,000’ will be near 20 degrees and at 8,000’ in the mid 30’s. Overnight low temperatures will only dip into the high 20’s. Winds will generally be out of the northwest today at speeds of 10-20 mph along the ridges and should switch to the southwest and become light by afternoon. For Tuesday, southwesterly winds will increase and temperatures will become rather mild, jumping into the mid 40’s. A Pacific storm system is slated to move across the area on Wednesday night into Thursday, though at the moment the computer models keep waffling as to the track of this system.

General Information:

We can always use snow and avalanche information and your snowpack and avalanche observations could help to save someone’s life. If you see or trigger an avalanche give us a call at 801-231-2170 or 1-800-662-4140.

Also, if you’d like to schedule a free avalanche awareness talk and/or field day give us a call at 801-524-5304.

The information in this advisory is from the U.S. Forest Service, which is solely responsible for its content. This advisory describes general avalanche conditions and local variations always occur.

I will update this advisory by 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb.18, 2004.

Thanks for calling.