Lawinenlagebericht

Uintas

Utah Avalanche Center
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Lawinengefahr

  • Hochgebirge
  • Waldgrenze
  • Unterhalb der Waldgrenze
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Veraltet — dieser Lagebericht ist 8 months ago abgelaufen. Du siehst vergangene Verhältnisse, nicht den aktuellen Bericht.

Kernpunkte

Today, you'll find LOW avalanche danger and human triggered avalanches are UNLIKELY. Remember... LOW avalanche danger doesn't mean NO avalanche danger, so I remind myself to avoid steep, suspect terrain facing the north half of the compass, especially slopes in the alpine that are thin and rocky, where a stiff slab rests on top of weak, sugary, early season snow.

Lawinenprobleme

  • Persistent Slabs

    • Hochgebirge
    • Waldgrenze
    • Unterhalb der Waldgrenze
    Wahrscheinlichkeit
    Unlikely
    Größe
    2

    Early last week, a party of riders triggered this avalanche on the North Slope near the Humpy Basin. Evidence is sparse, but some strong detective work from local Snowpro, Trevor Katz, helped piece things together. Looks like a catch and carry a close call. You can find more on their report here.

    Here's the setup-

    Upper elevation slopes facing the north half of the compass harbor early-season snow that grew weak and sugary during the November dryspell. Last week's storm snow conspired with strong winds, burying the weak layer a couple feet deep, creating our main avalanche hazard, persistent slab avalanches. It's not a widespread problem, but the usual suspects come to mind... steep, shady, upper-elevation, rocky slopes where, once triggered, today's avalanches could still break deeper and wider than you expect, delivering a nasty ride.

    It has been over a week since the last persistent slab avalanche was reported. As time wears on and the snowpack gets comfortable in its own skin, there's fewer red flags, or obvious clues... like cracking and collapsing. But sometimes we need to take a deeper look under the hood to understand what's going on. A quick dig with your shovel easily reveals a strong, dense slab resting on weak, sugary snow. That combo creates a trap-door feeling when we're trenching our sled or stomping out an aggressive ski track.

Additional Info

This fleet can't be beat! Huge thanks to Ski-Doo in partnership with Karl Malone's Plaza Cycle, for arranging our sled, loaner program. This vital state-wide partnership gets sleds into the hands of UAC forecasters, allowing us to see more terrain, gather more snowpack information, and issue more accurate avalanche forecasts. Ultimately, this program helps us save lives!

Special Announcement

Our Holiday Auction closes Dec 16th! Check it out now to gear up for winter while supporting avalanche forecasting, awareness, and education across the state!

Recent Activity

No new avalanche activity to report, but you can find lots of travel reports and observations from across the range and beyond below.

View All Observations Here

Snow and Weather

Nowcast - Near the high peaks at o'dark thirty, winds blow 10-20 mph from the west and northwest, ushering in a band of high, thin clouds. We're getting close to the shortest day of the year, yet temperatures hover near freezing across the board.

Forecast - An incoming storm is at the doorstep, so look for increasing clouds with temperatures climbing into the mid 30's F. Winds blow from the west and northwest, in the mid 20 mph range for a good portion of the day, bumping into the 40's by about dinnertime.

Futurecast - The storm slides into the Uinta zone early Wednesday morning with snow showers developing right around sunrise. It's a warm, windy system and storm totals aren't particularly impressive, though I think we'll stack up 4" of dense, heavy snow. Just what we need right now... a thick coat of white paint. A break is on tap for Thursday with another moist system in the queue for Friday.

Visit Here For Additional Weather Information

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Travel Conditions - From sun crust to wind-board, facets to near-Solstice slush, it's a crap shoot, especially in the alpine. However, you can minimize the house odds and avoid rolling a set of snake eyes by steering towards low angle, wind sheltered, shady terrain. Or get some chores done today and tomorrow and wait for the storm to stack up a little cushion for a smoother, more reliable ride :)

From an avy perspective, the snow surface and overall coverage are a variable, mixed bag of both strong and weak snow. Once winter returns from it's tropical hiatus it'll offer a tricky setup.

Trevor was in upper Moffit Basin yesterday and ran into Charlie, Martin, and of course the always elusive and rarely photographed, Ice Sheen (pictured above).

On Sunday, Andy and his crew found some mellow, yacht-rock jamming near Murdock Peak on a wind sheltered, shady, polar aspect andscored some low tide, low angle love.

General Announcements

We have some upcoming classes and events that we would be stoked to see you at -- Please reach out with any questions and check out below for more details!

See All Courses & Events Here

We are always looking for snow and avalanche observations or just general riding conditions. Reach out to us with questions, concerns, or if you see anything in your travels! Contact us directly through the info below:

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 Tuesday, December 16th at 0400 AM and expires 24 hours after it was issued. We'll update this information by 07:00 AM tomorrow.

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