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Forecast for the Uintas Area Mountains

Craig Gordon
Issued by Craig Gordon on
Friday morning, January 16, 2026

In a green sea of relatively LOW avalanche hazard, a few yellow tipped sharks circle the waters especially on the south half of the range. From Wolf Creek through Currant Creek and Strawberry, pockets of more pronounced MODERATE avalanche danger are found and human triggered avalanches are POSSIBLE, particularly in the wind zone at and above treeline. Hard, dense drifts on the leeward side of solar facing ridges will react to our additional weight and could catch you off guard on a sustained, steep slope. In addition, sure it's becoming more the exception than the rule, but avalanches failing into persistent weak layers near the ground on steep, polar aspects are still POSSIBLE. You know this program and you're familiar with the bullseye suspect terrain to avoid... steep, rocky slopes, with a shallow weak snowpack is guilty until proven otherwise.

Note to self... I've been comfortably stepping out of my mini-golf world and into bigger chip 'n putt objectives and my sense is the avy hazard is trending towards LOW.

Low
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Weather and Snow

Nowcast -A waning crescent moon peers through severe clear skies as the mercury begins its day in the upper 20's °F. While most of the range enjoys a break from the wind, the overachieving southern sector around Currant Creek clocks in with winds from the northwest blowing 30-40 mph.

Forecast - Expect yet another sunny day, but with slightly cooler temperatures only climbing into the low 30's °F. Winds blowing from the northwest bump up a smidge this morning, humming into the 40's near the high peaks, before relaxing later today. Overnight lows dip into the upper teens.

Futurecast - I got nothing new for ya in the weather department... high and dry through the weekend with increasing darkness at the end of the day, followed by widely scattered light in the morning :)

Check out the Uinta Weather Network here!

Travel Conditions - Strong sunshine and warm temps have had their way with solar aspects and low elevations, at the same time, strong winds torched the alpine. But don't let your heart be troubled... wind sheltered, mid and upper elevation north-facing terrain offers spongy, dry powder, on a very reboundable base.

Our mainman with the Uinta plan, Ted Scroggin, was out and about Wednesday and says... "Some riders have been testing the waters and stepping into some bigger terrain in the Whitney Basin... I have been nibbling at the edges and feeling a little more confident in the snow pack as it gains some strength and stability." Good words of advice from a guy that knows the range better than anyone.

Recent Avalanches

Wednesday, avy-savvy snowpro, DJ Osborne triggered this hard, meaty, wind-drift on a steep, windloaded slope on the south half of the range near Smith Basin. More deets HERE.

Click on the button below to scroll through a history of this winter.

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Avalanche Problem #1
Persistent Weak Layer
Type
Location
Likelihood
Size
Description

The snowpack is getting comfortable in its own skin and the likelihood of triggering a deep, dangerous avalanche is decreasing... and that's good news. So, it's not like rolling craps in Vegas, maybe a bit more like Minesweeper, play it long enough and eventually we're bound to stumble onto the booby trap. Remember, all we need to do is find a thin portion of the snowpack, like around a rock or bush, collapse the weak layer (whumpf), and now we're staring down the barrel of a dangerous avalanche. Don't forget, today's persistent slab avalanches are tricky, unmanageable slides. Instead of trying to outsmart the avalanche, avoidance is the go-to tool. I'm steering clear of the problem until it no longer exists or is buried deep enough and on the road to healing.

Ted and I stomped around the periphery of Chalk Creek Tuesday and found encouraging news where our snowpack is deep.

Avalanche Problem #2
Wind Drifted Snow
Type
Location
Likelihood
Size
Description

24 hour data dump from Currant Creek Peak (10,547') illustrating the velocity and duration of north and northeast winds.

Dang... even more wind yesterday and overnight and I bet there's a stubborn, hard drift or two lurking on the south half of the compass where northerly winds have worked overtime. Easy to detect by their fat rounded appearance, they're even easier to avoid by losing a little elevation and steering towards wind sheltered slopes.

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This forecast is from the U.S.D.A. Forest Service, which is solely responsible for its content. This forecast describes general avalanche conditions, and local variations always occur. This forecast was issued on Friday, January 16th at 0330 AM and expires 24 hours after it was issued. We'll update this information by 07:00 AM tomorrow.

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