Uintas Conditions 2017

Dave

Dave

Broadcaster, formerly "ashergrey"
.
Joined
May 5, 2012
Messages
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Seems like it's about time to start up the annual Uintas conditions thread, even though there's still a ton of snow up high. Post your observations here.
 
For what it's worth, the Trial Lake snotel has lost about a foot in the last week... but the snow depth is still 64 inches. The UDOT weather station at Bald Mountain Pass is recording 80 inches of snow depth, but the webcam shows snow over the road is not nearly that deep.
 
Udink said:
According to this KSL article, "UDOT’s aim is to have all the passes open before Memorial Day." Presumably that includes Mirror Lake Highway.
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I think that's likely but don't count on campgrounds or trail heads up high being open.
 
Ran up to the East Fork trailhead today. River is running high. Patchy snow above about 8,800 feet and solid snow up high. The trailhead is clear but good luck getting very far.

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Udink said:
According to this KSL article, "UDOT’s aim is to have all the passes open before Memorial Day." Presumably that includes Mirror Lake Highway.
Click to expand...

Same old story, different year, right? Seems like Memorial Day weekend is the target every year. It just might take a few more man hours to clear the road over Bald Mountain Pass in time given the extra snow this year.
 
Early June snowshoe trip perhaps?

It seems like no matter how much snow there is it almost always melts out at about the same time each year. The exception to that rule was 2010-2011.
 
An MLH Update from this weekend. RV camped on the Mirror Lake Highway and it was fully dry down by the North Fork of the Provo. The road is open above that past the Soapstone gate as it is often is with just a few Road Closed signs set to the side that you can easily drive right by.

We started hitting full ground-covering snow well below the Provo River Falls and by the end of the road the highway boys were cutting it and throwing it from 7 or 8' deep. Their weekend resting point was only 1/4 mile from Bald Mountain Pass. It is hard to imagine that they will have it open all the way over the pass and down to Bear River ranger station by next weekend. It kind of depends on whether there is a full crew working their way up from Wyoming or not and how high they are. I am going to bet that this crew gets the MLH open to the pass. They seem motivated and they have a LOT of big gear in the mix including a Cat D6 and a snowblower with a 6' high intake that throws the snow a couple of hundred feet.

The low and mid/low elevations are open for business. Trails become snow covered before 8-9,000' depending on aspect.
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Yes there is. I am kind of amazed they had it blown that high - that close to the pass. The good news was that it was easy to walk on top of, even in the early afternoon. You can walk anywhere. Great time for exploring and snow camping.

The snow was so supportable the bulldozer, a massive Caterpillar D6, was parked on top of the 7' high embankment right next to the steep snow wall left by the blower.
 
I drove to the eastern end of the range and from what I saw, it's like that all along the Uintas. There was even light snow around the 7500 foot range at Flaming Gorge.
 
Its gonna be a late start out there like 2011. But once they get the road cleared its easy pickings for some splitboarding or ski touring.
 
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