The Backountry 101 course has been cancelled.
Road Conditions: The road to Geyser Pass Trailhead is mostly down to the dirt. Some patchy areas of packed snow and ice remain and they are slick. AWD and good tires are recommended.
Grooming: A couple inches of new snow will grace the trails this morning. Follow LUNA (Lower Utah Nordic Alliance) on Instagram @luna_moab
Members of the Grand County Winter Rescue Team turned out for ropes and toboggan training at the Geyser Pass Trailhead on Saturday. This solid crew is a great asset to our winter backcountry community. Thanks team!
6:00 a.m. weather data:
24 Hour Snow 2" 72 Hour Snow 2" Base Depth at Gold Basin 41" Wind NW 15-25 Temp 11F
2" of new snow is better than none, the trouble may be finding it, especially above treeline where northerly winds blew in the 25-35 mph range with gusts to 50 for about five hours between 10:00 p.m. and 3:00 a.m. They've backed off a bit but will continue to blow in the 15-25 mph range along ridge tops with gusts to 35. Skies will be sunny and high temps will be in the low to mid 20's. High pressure returns for the weekend with an another storm brewing for early next week.
Snowpack
2" of low density snow accompanied by wind won't improve conditions a whole lot but at least it's something. Low angle, wind sheltered terrain will be your best bet for taking advantage of the dusting. From an avalanche perspective, we may see a few, fresh, shallow wind slabs out there, particularly in higher, more exposed terrain, but in general our attention remains focused on the loose, sugary,
faceted snow that has formed near the surface during this extended period of high pressure. These near surface facets will become the next weak layer in the snowpack and they are starting to get covered up.
Currently, the weakest snow can be found on steep, shady, northerly aspects right around treeline and below. In some of these areas, the entire snowpack has become loose and faceted. Above treeline, conditions are much more variable ranging from from wind scoured and sun crusted, to boiler plate. Where crusts are thin, the snow is faceting underneath. This makes mapping of this future weak layer tricky. Generally speaking, the more sheltered the area, the more likely the the surface is to be weak and faceted. When new snow finally comes, slope by slope analysis will be required when getting into steep terrain.
