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Out of date — this forecast expired 7 years ago.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

Heads up...dangerous avalanche conditions are beginning to evolve-

In upper elevation terrain in the wind zone, deceptively tricky avalanche conditions exist on steep, wind drifted slopes, especially those with an easterly component to its aspect. You'll find HIGH avalanche danger in terrain with these characteristics and human triggered avalanches are VERY LIKELY. Any avalanche triggered may break to weak snow near the ground, creating a larger avalanche than you might've bargained for.

Winds are drifting snow onto leeward, mid elevation slopes and fresh drifts may break deeper and wider than you might expect. Steep, wind drifted slopes offer a CONSIDERABLE avalanche danger and human triggered avalanches are LIKELY.

Just the shear amount of new snow warrants a heads up on steep, lower elevation terrain where a MODERATE avalanche danger is foundand human triggered slides and sluffs are possible.

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Likely
    Size
    2

    Easy to observe from a distance as you make your trip plan... winds have been blowing from the left (windward) and loading slopes on the right (leeward)

    Winds ramped up again last night and they'll have no shortage of fresh snow to work with. Today's drifts are gonna be slightly more stubborn than yesterday's hyper-sensitive slabs, but once triggered, can break deeper and wider than you might expect. Most prevalent on upper elevation leeward slopes, there might also be a fresh drift or two cross-loaded onto mid elevation terrain features like chutes and gullies. In either case, your best bet for avoidance is to simply steer clear of any fat, rounded piece of snow, especially if it sounds hollow like a drum.

  • Persistent Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    3

    Above, a short viddy illustrating a snow stability test at the crown of a recently triggered slide. Thanks Jason Boyer for sharing this critical information.

    This weeks storm snow and water are starting to stack up and last nights strong winds along with continued snowfall may begin to wake up some of our persistent weak layers buried in the mid portion of our snowpack. As as a matter of fact, I think in some zones that have a thin snowpack, especially terrain that avalanched earlier this year, we might be teetering on the edge.

    Making matters more complicated than ususal is... we've got persistent weaknesses on all aspects of the compass, particularly in upper elevation terrain. And the bottom line is... anything persistent in our pack is tricky, can take long periods of time to heal, and our usual "bag of tricks" observations, particularly when we don't see avalanche activity, often suggest false "green light" conditions. So that means, you can ride some slopes and be good to go, while others just wait for us to roll along and knock the legs out from underneath. And here's the danger... once initiated, avalanches have a distinct possibility of breaking deeper and wider than you might expect.

    Take home-

    Let's keep our eyes on the prize.

    We're in a stormy pattern and additional weight will test the myriad of snowpack structures, depths, and strength.

  • Storm Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    1

    We've had a lot of new snow this week and now its stacking up around our trailheads and at lower elevations. Remember... even if you're headed out for a trail run, snowshoe, dog walk, or family sled adventure, be aware of steep slopes above and adjacent to where you're playing and avoid terrain traps like gullies and streambeds.

Recent Activity

With a little coercing, Jason B and his team were able to trigger this nicely connected wind slab which broke into weak snow near the ground, on a steep, upper elevation, easterly aspect in the wind zone.

To view additional trip reports and recent avalanche activity, simply click here.

Snow and Weather

Currently-

A quick hitting impulse moving through the region overnight delivered a couple inches of medium density snow, adding to what feels like a bottomless cup of storm system refills. South and southwest winds picked up around 9:00 last night and blow in the 20's and 30's with gusts near 50 mph along the high peaks. Current temperatures register in the single digits and low teens. Riding and turning conditions are about as good as they get and wind sheltered terrain offers deep, cold, creamy snow.

Above is a 12 hour data set from Lofty Lake Peak (11,186') showing the bump in overnight winds.

Uinta weather network info is found here. Simply click on the Western Uinta tab.

For today-

Look for mostly cloudy skies, temperatures rising into the teens and low 20's, and westerly winds blowing 30-50 mph along the high peaks this morning before diminishing as the day progresses. A burst of snow moves through the region later this morning and we can expect an additional 6" before snowfall tapers off by mid afternoon.

Futurecast-

More storms jump on the snow train for the upcoming week. Expect yet another system for Tuesday, a break for Wednesday/Thursday, with another storm slated for late Thursday/Friday.

Additional Info

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.

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General Announcements

The information in this forecast expires in 24 hours, but will be updated by 7:00 AM Tuesday Jan. 14th.

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

It'll be a minute or two before we're riding, but while you're waiting....

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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