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Forecast for the Uintas Area Mountains

Craig Gordon
Issued by Craig Gordon on
Tuesday morning, February 11, 2020
In the wind zone at and above treeline, the avalanche danger is MODERATE. Human triggered avalanches are POSSIBLE on steep, wind drifted slopes, especially those with an easterly component to its aspect. While more the exception than the rule, avalanches breaking into deeper, buried weak layers remains a distinct possibility. Usual suspects include- steep, rocky, upper elevation terrain, especially slopes exhibiting a thin, shallow snowpack. Remember- any slide that breaks to old snow, instantly throws a curve ball at your day.
Lose the wind and you lose the problem. Wind sheltered mid and low elevation terrain offers generally LOW avalanche danger.
Low
Moderate
Considerable
High
Extreme
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Special Announcements
Let's visit at Alpha Coffee on Wednesday night where we'll talk about the current state of affairs in our snowpack. It's guaranteed to be informative, it'll definitely be timely, and it might even be entertaining... hope to see y'all there!
Weather and Snow
Currently-
A weak cold front slid through the region overnight and temperatures crashed to near zero degrees... Fahrenheit... not Kelvin. Under clear skies and a big, bright, beautiful, yet waning moon, northerly winds blow 15-25 mph along the high peaks and wind chill factors register to -25 degrees. No new snow fell in the past 24 hours, but riding and turning conditions are excellent right now, especially on wind sheltered mid elevation slopes.
Uinta weather network info is found here. Simply click on the Western Uinta tab.
For today-
Mostly sunny skies and continued cooler temperatures with highs reaching into the mid 20's. Northerly winds blow 15-25 mph along the high ridges. A few flurries develop overnight and into Wednesday morning.
Futurecast-
Another weak disturbance moves through Friday night, a break for Saturday with a stronger and colder storm Sunday through Monday.
Recent Avalanches
No new avalanche activity to report from Monday, but it was a busy weekend on the eastern front, with multiple sled triggered slides reported across the range.
From Sunday-
The persistent slab in the image above was initiated by the 4th rider on the slope yesterday in the west fork of the Duchesne. Triggered on a steep, heavily wind drifted, southeast aspect, this slide broke 2'-5' deep, 250 yards wide, and most likely failed on the Christmas crust/facet combo.
And Saturday-
A well connected wind drift triggered on the steep northeast face of Double Hill.
To view additional trip reports and recent avalanche activity, simply click here.
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Avalanche Problem #1
Wind Drifted Snow
Type
Location
Likelihood
Size
Description
Follow the wind and you'll find the hazard.
While I think recent wind drifts are becoming glued in place and less reactive over time, I also need to remember that as the snow gains strength it will allow us to get onto steeper, more avalanche prone terrain. So the best rule of thumb to avoid a close call is to simply avoid steep wind drifted slopes, especially if they look fat and rounded or feel hollow and sound like a drum.
Avalanche Problem #2
Persistent Weak Layer
Type
Location
Likelihood
Size
Description
We can't see weak layers in the snowpack unless we take a minute, get our shovels out, and investigate... but the snowpack has an amazing memory and doesn't forget where these deficits are located. All we need to do is find one inconsistency (like a shallow, rocky section of the slope like in the image above), collapse the pack, and now we're staring down the barrel of a dangerous avalanche.
Most terrain offers a deep snowpack and it's happy in its own skin. Now I need to think about suspect terrain I want to avoid, and that includes steep, rocky terrain and slopes that avalanched near the ground earlier in the season. Recent avalanche activity involving weak snowpack structure confirms this hypothesis.
Additional Information
Thanks to the generous support of our Utah ski resorts and Ski Utah, we have discount lift tickets available. All proceeds support the UAC. Get your tickets HERE.
Get one of these cool t-shirts to support the UAC and other avalanche centers across the U.S. INFO
General Announcements
The information in this forecast expires in 24 hours, but will be updated by 7:00 AM Wednesday Feb. 12th.
This forecast is updated daily by 7:00 AM.
In the mean-time, if you see or trigger an avalanche or just wanna let me know what you're seeing you can reach me directly at 801-231-2170
This is a great time of year to schedule one of our free avy awareness presentations.
You can email me directly [email protected]
The information in this forecast is from the US Forest Service which is solely responsible for its content.
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