Avalanche forecast

Uintas

Utah Avalanche Center
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Avalanche danger

  • Alpine
  • Treeline
  • Below treeline
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Out of date — this forecast expired last year. You’re viewing past conditions, not the current bulletin.

Highlights

In the windzone at and above treeliine, you'll find MODERATE avalanchedanger on slopes facing the north half of the compass. Both new and old wind drifts will react to our additional weight and human triggered avalanches are POSSIBLE. And remember... faceted snow still exists in terrain harboring a shallow snowpack. Pulling on the avalanche dragons tail in steep, rocky terrain or slopes that have avalanched early in the season will result in a body-bruising slide, that fails on old snow and breaks deeper and wider than we might expect.

Slopes facing the south half of the compass (solar) and lower elevation shady (polar) terrain offers generally LOW avalanche danger and human triggered avalanches are UNLIKELY.

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    2

    Chad B and his motorized Brat-pack found outstanding riding near Bald Mountain yesterday and noted this small, cross-loaded pocket on the east facing apron above Mirror Lake Highway.

    Most of our sunny slopes got baked yesterday, but I bet there's enough loose snow still available to blow around and form a fresh drift or two on upper elevation leeward slopes. Don't let your guard down, especially in the windzone above treeline, where a fresh wind slab could definitely pack a bigger punch then you might've bargained for. You know the program... lose the wind and you lose the problem. Simply steer yourself away from fat, rounded pillows of snow and towards wind sheltered terrain. You reduce the hazard, yet increase the chances of having an even more epic day... done and done.

  • Persistent Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    3

    Becoming more the exception than the rule, recent storm snow and wind have the potential to wake up the PWL avalanche dragon today, especially in terrain that has remained thin all season like slopes that avalanched earlier this winter. Here's the deal and here's where it gets tricky... we're not going to see obvious red flags like cracking, or hear big, booming whoomphing sounds or experience heart-stopping collapses. However, if you do some detective work and trench down a bit you'll find weak, faceted snow buried a couple feet below the snow surface. We might forget about the layering, but recent avalanches breaking to these layers tell us the snowpack has an amazing memory.

    Chad was in the Silks Basin area and found a swath of terrain with a very shallow snowpack. Although on the extreme end of the spectrum, it's evidence that our structure is poor on slopes that are thin, or have avalanched repeatedly this season.

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Recent Activity

Perhaps an outlier, but noteworthy none-the-less. This pockety, yet meaty slab was triggered yesterday by cornice fall, on a very steep, northeast facing slope at 10,400' in Upper Humpy Basin. Breaking 4' deep x 100' wide and failing on the early February facet/dust layer, this avalanche was packing heat and could've easily ruined your day as it fanned out onto the slope below.

Snow and Weather

Nowcast- A weak storm clipping northern Utah, dragged high clouds into the region overnight, while southerly winds ramped into the mid and upper 20's near the high peaks at the turn of the new day. My Barbie calendar says... "Happy Spring, it's Time to Shine!", but temperatures registering in the teens make it feel more like mid winter.

Forecast- Look for mostly cloudy skies with a scattered snow shower or two.... but I expect minimal accumulations. Southwesterly winds blow in the obnoxious category before sunrise, bumping into the 30's near the high peaks, but begin trending downward and switch to the west-northwest by about mid morning. High temperatures climb into the low 30's and overnight lows dip into the teens.

Futurecast- A break in the action is slated for most of Friday with another stronger system sliding through late in the day, delivering a 3"-6" refresh to kick off the weekend. It'll be high and dry from Sunday into the foreseeable future.

Travel & Riding Conditions-

I hope y'all redeemed your free hall pass yesterday, 'cause it might've been the best day of the year. Me... I came for the views, scored a big game tag, but decided to tattoo a dragons back instead :)

Additional Info

  • We come to you with heavy hearts and great sadness this morning to confirm an avalanche accident on Friday, March 7th near Hoyt Peak, involving 51 year old Micheal Janulaitis from Marion, Utah. Micheal used a snowbike to access the terrain, but was caught, carried, and killed in an avalanche while skiing a steep, northeast facing run on Hoyt Peak.Huge thanks to the Department of Public Safety, Park City Mountain Resort and Canyons Village Snow Safety and Ski Patrol teams, along with Wasatch Backcountry Rescue for the hard work recovering Micheal and returning him to his family. Micheal was a friend of Utah Avy and we feel privileged for the time we got to spend together. This is a tremendous loss for our backcountry family and we will miss him deeply. We are compiling accident details and a preliminary report is available here.

General Announcements

We are always looking for snow and avalanche observations or just general riding conditions. In the meantime 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 Thursday, March 20th at 03:30 AM and expires 24 hours after it was issued.

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