How is load average related to CPU utilization?
Solution 1:
I assume this is due to a process being in a state of uninterruptable sleep (
Sleep).
For a number of years now, the Linux kernel counts uninterruptable sleep towards load. This state is usually caused by a program waiting for disk I/O.
You can check if the high load correlates with I/O by watching the output of ps aux; look for a Din the Stat column, or see 
Linux - How can I see what's waiting for disk IO.