US Forest Service Manti-La Sal National Forest

Introduction: Good morning, this is Dave Medara with the USFS Manti-La Sal Avalanche Center with your avalanche and mountain weather advisory. Today is Monday, February 27th, at 8:00 AM. This advisory will expire in 24 hours.

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To see past advisories check out the ARCHIVE. To see current conditions go to our WEATHER PAGE. To see photos go to the AVIPHOTOS page.

Please give us your observations from the field HERE. The more observations we get, the better this forecast can be.

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General Conditions:

Storm Clouds continued to hover over the mountains and overnight the ceiling has lowered and the Moab Valley is covered in a blanket of new snow. I t looks like another six inches or so have fallen overnight at the Geyser trailhead elevations. This continued stormy weather has kept the sun at bay and conditions are still dry powder out here in the La Sal Mountains. There is some excellent skiing and riding out there at the moment. We’ve seen some stuck snow machines and hard walking conditions with the deep snow that has accumulated so far. Expect this pattern to continue with only a slight break in the action today.

GC roads was up Monday and did a great job clearing the road, but today expect the road to the Geyser Pass Trailhead will be snowy and 4wd is recommended today.

Grooming was done yesterday up and over Geyser Pass, and has likely been erased.

Mountain Weather: (At 10,500’)

Today: Periods of snow. High near 21. West wind between 10 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 35 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. Total daytime snow accumulation of 3 to 7 inches possible.
Tonight: Periods of snow. Low around 9. Breezy, with a west-northwest wind between 10 and 20 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New snow accumulation of 1 to 3 inches possible.
Thursday: A 50 percent chance of snow. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 17. Breezy, with a west-northwest wind between 20 and 25 mph, with gusts as high as 35 mph. New snow accumulation of 1 to 2 inches possible.
Thursday Night: A 30 percent chance of snow. Mostly cloudy, with a low around -1. Blustery, with a west northwest wind between 10 and 20 mph, with gusts as high as 35 mph.

Weather Station/ Location	Snow Depth (HS): in./cm	New Snow (HN) in./cm	7:00 a.m. Temp (F)	Current Observations: Wind, 48 hour snow
Geyser Pass Trailhead (9,600’): (snotel link)	36.5”	6” (.3” h2o)	16	Powder (19” last three days!, 1.2” H20)
Geyser Pass	55”	6-8”	N/a	Facets, powder
Gold Basin and South Mountain	57”	7”	n/a	Facets, Powder
Pre-Laurel Peak Station (11,705’)	N/a	N/a	8	SW winds13 mph

Avalanche Conditions: (Link to the International Avalanche Danger Scale here) –

The new snow last night brings our snow totals up to 19 inches this week. His is turning into a pretty large storm for the La Sal Mountains. Storm totals appear to be less than half of this in the Abajo Mountains. We have many Red Flags out there warning us of the avalanche danger at the moment. We’re over our threshold value of 8” of snow, over our water weight equivalent of .6”, have had winds averaging over 15 mph for 6 hours of the last 48, and most importantly, have triggered and observed avalanche activity (last Monday with an increasing trend at that time). We are currently calling the avalanche danger rating HIGH in all the mountains of SE Utah, with particular emphasis in the La Sals, which have rec’d the most snow. Keep the slope angle very conservative out there and please let us know if you see anything noteworthy in your mountain. We’ll update this message by Friday morning.