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Out of date — this forecast expired 7 years ago. You’re viewing past conditions, not the current bulletin.

Highlights

In mid and upper elevation terrain, at and above treeline, you'll find MODERATE avalanche danger. Human triggered avalanches are POSSIBLE on steep wind drifted slopes, especially those facing the north half of the compass and particularly those with an easterly component to their aspect. Any avalanche that breaks into deeper buried weak layers near the ground will result in a deep, dangerous slide.

Lose some elevation, get out of the wind, and you lose much of the problem. Safer riding alternatives exist on low angle, lower elevation, wind sheltered slopes with no steep slopes above or adjacent to where you're riding. In terrain with these characteristics you'll find generally LOW avalanche danger and human triggered avalanches are UNLIKELY.

Avalanche problems

  • Persistent Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    4

    A TALE OF TWO SNOWPACKS-

    Shallow, weak snowpack-

    We caught sight of this avalanche Thursday. While a bit older, perhaps occurring last Sunday or Monday, the natural slide in the image above was most likely triggered by cornice fall and fits the recent trend of avalanches breaking to the ground once initiated in steep, rocky terrain.

    Whereas the image above shows a snowpit profile depicting a deep, strong snowpack that's becoming happy in its own skin.

    The good news....

    It feels like we're starting to turn the corner where the snowpack is becoming thick, and deep dangerous avalanches are becoming harder to trigger.

    The bad news...

    All we need to do is find a shallow, weak portion of the snowpack, perhaps around a rock or bush that we can't see underneath the snow, collapse the slope (whoomph), and now we're staring down the barrel of a dangerous avalanche. This type of snow structure is particularly dangerous because the range is fat and white and the snowpack is gonna feel really strong and supportable. As a matter of fact we can ride many slopes without incident and think we're good to go.

    The news we need to know....

    The common theme for all the big avalanches we've seen recently is they've occurred on steep, rocky, upper elevation, wind drifted slopes facing the north half of the compass, along with slopes that avalanched earlier this season and have a shallow snowpack.

    The "Flake" news....

    The key to a successful day of riding means avoiding bulls-eye terrain where unmanageable avalanche dragons live.

    Here's what our weak snow near the ground looks like and Cody's take... "4-6 mm Depth Hoar crystals found in our snowpit in the Humpy Creek drainage. Hard to trust a depth hoar snowpack even when buried this deep..."

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    2

    Winds are cranking along the ridges and now they have a little fresh snow to work with. For today, I bet you'll encounter shallow, sensitive drifts like the one in the image above. Even with just a few inches to blow around, it never ceases to amaze me how the Uinta range can find snow, channel it through terrain features, and whip up a fresh batch of drifts sensitive to our additional weight. While today's wind drifts are found mostly along the leeward side of mid and upper elevation ridges, drifts also formed around terrain features like chutes or gullies. In any case, today you'll want to look for and avoid any fat, rounded piece of snow, especially if it sounds hollow like a drum. (Scroggin image)

  • Cornices

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    4

    After a brief sabbatical, winds are back at work, busily creating additional layers of cornice that may break back further than you might expect. And remember- several large, recent avalanches have been triggered with cornice fall. You definitely wanna give these large, unpredictable pieces of snow a wide berth and not ruin someones day below by inadvertently knocking a boxcar size piece of snow down on them.

    A piece of cornice releasing naturally, rolled down onto the slope below sometime early Sunday morning, triggering this large slide that broke to weak snow near the ground. Approx 8' deep, 200' wide, and running 800' vertically, this avalanche occurred on a NE aspect at 10,300' at the upper reaches of Mill Fork of Chalk Creek. (Nalli images)

Special Announcement

The accident reports for the four avalanche fatalities are all finalized with some first-hand accounts and worth reading. We all have something to learn so that we can get home safely to our loved ones.

Jan 18 Electric Lake Accident (Skyline area)

Jan 25 Laurel Peak Accident (Moab area)

Feb 7 Circleville Mtn Accident (Southwest area near Beaver, UT)

Feb 9 Chalk Creek Accident (Western Uintas)

Many thanks to these fine gentlemen for helping to install our Beacon Basin on the north end of the Nobletts parking lot. While you're in the hood and waiting for your partner or group, you can keep warm and test your avalanche beacon rescue skills at the same time.... your partners will be stoked.

Recent Activity

No significant new avalanche activity from Friday.

Recent trip reports and avy activity found HERE.

Snow and Weather

Light snow developed Friday afternoon, continued through the night, and scattered snow showers linger over the region this morning. No big storm totals, just a couple inches of dense, spongy snow, which is enough to smooth out some of the old tracks and hard snow surfaces. Currently, temperatures are in the low to mid 20's. Since Friday morning, west-southwest blew in the 20's, but just bumped into the 30's and 40's early this morning.

Above is hourly data from Trial Lake (9,945') and Windy Peak (10,662'). To view more regional weather stations click here.

A couple days worth of winds damaged lots of snow in the high alpine bowls, but the recent, albeit thin, layers of white paint will go a long way to help smooth things out and provide a little cushion, especially on low angle slopes. Big Al and the BCI Crew were riding out of Soapstone yesterday and found superior views along with soft snow.

Additional Info

Our storm delivers another inch or two before moving east later this morning bringing a break in the action for most of the day. Temperatures rise into the mid 30's and west-southwest winds blow in the 30's and 40's along the high ridges.

Another similar round of snow slides into the region late this afternoon and continues through the evening before tapering off overnight. An active pattern is on tap for the next few days.

General Announcements

The information in this advisory expires 24 hours after the date and time posted, but will be updated by 7:00 AM Sunday March 3rd, 2019.

If you're getting out and about, please let me know what you're seeing especially if you see or trigger and avalanche. I can be reached at [email protected] or 801-231-2170

It's also a good time to set up one of our very popular avalanche awareness classes. Reach out to me and I'll make it happen.

This information does not apply to developed ski areas or highways where avalanche control is normally done. This advisory is from the U.S.D.A. Forest Service, which is solely responsible for its content. This advisory describes general avalanche conditions and local variations always occur.

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