Bulletin d’avalanche

Uintas

Utah Avalanche Center
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Danger d’avalanche

  • Alpin
  • Limite forestière
  • Sous la limite forestière
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Périmé — ce bulletin a expiré 2 years ago. Vous consultez des conditions passées, pas le bulletin en cours.

Points saillants

While not widespread, today you'll find pockets of MODERATE avalanche danger on steep, shady, wind drifted slopes. Though the snowpack is shallow and it doesn't look like there's enough snow to slide, human triggered avalanches are POSSIBLE and could break deeper and wider than you might expect, especially in the wind zone above treeline, and particularly on slopes facing the north half of the compass that held early season snow.

HEADS UP- we might still be able to initiate an avalanche from a distance and any slide triggered is gonna reveal a myriad of season ending obstacles. Note to self... think slamming into stumps, rocks, or dead fall.

Our exit strategy is an easy one.... we can have a blast today simply steering towards low angle slopes with no overhead hazard.

Problèmes avalancheux

  • Persistent Slabs

    • Alpin
    • Limite forestière
    • Sous la limite forestière
    Probabilité
    Possible
    Taille
    2

    Of course we've seen worse looking snowpacks and it's no shock that our problem child (persistent weak layer or PWL), the sugary, faceted snow near ground is gonna gives us some heartburn. It's a classic, early season, strong snow resting on weak snow structure. Now for the inside line... all the snowpros, I knows, are giving this setup a wide berth because we realize it's a tricky combo.

    Here's where it's deceiving... in areas where the pack is deep, the snow will feel strong and bomber underneath us. However, all we need to do is find a thin spot, maybe around a bush or rock, collapse the slope, and now we're staring down the barrel of a moving piece of snow that could ruin our day. In many areas the stiff, cohesive slab has relaxed somewhat and we might not be experiencing the in yer face, red flags like cracking or collapsing, But the layering is there and recent avy acitvity on the same types of slopes we wanna ride is the biggest bullseye clue.

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpin
    • Limite forestière
    • Sous la limite forestière
    Probabilité
    Unlikely
    Taille
    1

    I think you'd be hard pressed to find a wind drift reactive to our additional weight, but it never ceases to amaze me how mountainous terrain can channel wind and deposit snow in unusual terrain features like chutes and gullies.

    This avalanche dragon is pretty straight-forward and specific to upper elevation, shady terrain. Today, I'm looking for and avoiding fat, rounded, hard pillows of snow, especially if they sound hollow like a drum under my feet. Lose the wind and you lose the problem :)

Special Announcement

Save the dates and please join us this week!

- Avalanche Awareness Week kicks off at Sugarhouse Park on Monday December 2nd from 4:00- 7:00 and there's statewide events throughout the week, Check out the full list of happenings across the state HERE!

-The week wraps up Saturday December 7th from 4:00-7:45 PM at the University of Utah with our 17th annual Utah Snow and Avalanche Workshop. Deets and tickets HERE!

Recent Activity

On Wednesday, several remotely triggered avalanches broke near the ground on our problem child, a persistent weak layer of snow or what we call PWL. The image below submitted by Bo Torrey clearly illustrates the issue, on a steep, heavily wind-loaded, NNW facing slope at 9,600'.

Perhaps not quite as sensitive as midweek, today’s avalanches will look similar and can break deeper and wider than you might expect. And yeah... they'll pack a punch and can easily roll ya.

For the low-down on recent avy activity and more observations click here!

Snow and Weather

Nowcast-

Skies are clear and temperatures slightly inverted as cold air pools at lower elevations. The mercury begins its day shift in the teens at the trailheads, climbing into the mid 20's with a little bit of elevation gain. In the high country, westerly winds bumped into the 30's for a good portion of Saturday, but relaxed overnight, veered to the northwest and currently blow just 10-20 mph. near the peaks.

Forecast-

It'll be a glorious day in the mountains with sunny skies, light northerly winds, and temperatures climbing into the low and mid 30's. Overnight lows dip into the teens and low 20's.

Futurecast-

A few high, thin clouds drift to our north, otherwise, pretty quiet on the eastern front through the upcoming week.

Current conditions-

Ted ventured into the cold side of Bald Mountain yesterday and notes... "Nice surface snow that is starting to weaken, there were some crusted conditions on the sunny slopes and firm wind slabby snow in the exposed terrain. Conditions are still thin and it looks better than it is."

Andy and I were near Wolf Creek Pass Friday... here's the setup.

General Announcements

Additional Information

The Uinta weather station network was upgraded this summer and all that real-time info is found here. Simply click on the "Western Uinta" tab and then the "Weather Stations" tab to find all your weather needs.

We are always looking for snow and avalanche observations or just general riding conditions. So... if you see something, say something. You can reach our team directly by contacting Craig at [email protected], 801-231-2170, or Andrew at [email protected], or 860-460-8142.

General Information

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 Sunday December 1st at 0400 AM and expires 24 hours after it was issued. We will update the forecast by 07:00 tomorrow. But, in the meantime reach out to us with questions, or if you see anything in your travels.

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