Wasatch Cache and Uinta National Forests

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

Tri-City Performance, Polaris, the Utah Snowmobile Association, the National Weather Service, BRORA, and Backcountry Access.

Avalanche ADVISORY

saturDAY decemBER 30, 2006

The information in this advisory expires 24 hours after the date and time it’s issued, and will be updated Sunday December 31, 2006.

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 Saturday, December 30, 2006 and it’s about 7:00 in the morning. Avalanche advisories for the western Uinta’s are available on Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday and all holidays.

This advisory covers the terrain from Daniels Summit, to Mirror Lake, to the North Slope of the western Uinta Mountains. That’s a lot of turf and I can’t be in all of these places at once. Your snow and avalanche observations are critical to this program and help to save other riders lives by getting accurate information out to the public. I’m interested in what you’re seeing especially if you see or trigger an avalanche. Please call 801-231-2170, or email at [email protected] and fill me in with all the details.

Current Conditions:

High pressure is building across the region this morning, resulting in clear skies and inverted temperatures. The warmth is up high as current 10,000’ temperatures are near 30 degrees and down at the trailhead elevations it’s in the low 20’s. Several mountain valley locations are reporting single digit temperatures. For the first time in two days the lively east and northeasterly winds are starting to calm down, blowing 10-20 mph with a few gusts in the 30’s. Speaking of the wind… it’s had its way above tree line where the most exposed locations resemble a lunar expedition, but don’t get too discouraged because good settled powder can still be found on mid elevation sheltered shady slopes.

Avalanche Conditions:

The strong storm system which split around us and nailed Denver keeps churning away. The position of the storm for the past few days created unusually strong easterly winds that have not only wrecked a lot of our great upper elevation powder; they’ve also managed to create stiff wind slabs in uncommon places. The slabs formed on light density surface snow and are pockety, yet sensitive to the weight of a rider. Late this week two human triggered slides occurred on upper elevation northwesterly facing slopes above about 9,800’ in elevation. One avalanche near Moffit Peak was 1’-1½’ deep and 100’ wide and certainly big enough to bury you. The second, in upper Weber Canyon was triggered from about 30’ away and although it was only a 20’ wide pocket it’s tree shaking depth of 2’-4’ was certainly enough to get your attention.

Today you’ll want to look for and avoid any steep, upper elevation leeward slopes where fat looking pillows of snow have developed. New wind drifts or soft slabs should be shallow and manageable, but the older, hollow sounding hard slabs are the tricky ones. Hard slab avalanches often break above, rather than below you and are unpredictable. They’ll lure you out onto the slope giving you a false sense of security and strength before failing, and that’s what makes them so tricky. Remember, wind drifts will have formed in unusual locations so be suspicious of wind loading in chutes, gullies and around terrain features such as rock bands and sub-ridges, especially on any slope with a westerly component.

Bottom Line:

In upper elevation terrain at and above tree line the avalanche danger is MODERATE today on slopes steeper than about 35 degrees, especially those with both old and recent deposits of wind drifted snow. A MODERATE avalanche danger means human triggered avalanches are possible.

In wind sheltered terrain and at lower elevations the avalanche danger is generally LOW today and human triggered avalanches are unlikely.

Mountain Weather:

High pressure will build across the region today resulting in a warming trend with highs at 10,000’ near freezing and at 8,000’ in the upper 30’s. Overnight lows drop into the upper teens. Winds will be out of the north and will calm down as the day wears on, blowing 10-20 mph with a gust or two in the 30’s at the most exposed ridge top locations. A weakening storm system tries to break through the ridge on Monday, though we should only see a flurry or two and cooler temperatures. Partly cloudy skies return for mid week. The outlook for a big storm is grim and we remain in the split pattern for quite some time.

Announcements:

Come join us for a star studded fundraising ride on Saturday Jan. 27^th. Click here for more details.

I want to thank the crew at Tri-City Performance in Springville along with Polaris and the Utah Snowmobile Association for partnering with the avalanche center and stepping up to the plate by providing a new sled for this season! Click here, to see the new ride!

Free avalanche awareness classes are available. Give me a call at 801-231-2170 or email [email protected] and get one scheduled before the season gets too crazy!

 
If any terms confuse you, take a look at our new avalanche encyclopedia.

For avalanche photos click here.

General Information:

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’ll update this advisory by 7:30 am on Sunday December 31, 2006.

This advisory is also available by calling 1-800-648-7433 or

1-888-999-4019.

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