Manti-La Sal Avalanche Center

US Forest Service Manti-La Sal National Forest

Introduction: Good Morning! This is Evan Stevens with the USFS Manti-La Sal Avalanche Center with your avalanche and mountain weather advisory. Today is Friday, February 6th, 2004 at 7:30 am.

Tonight is our Level 1 Avalanche Course at the Grand County SAR shed…come on down, we only have 1 spot left! Call 259-7155 to register.

Click here for recent photos. Click here for Snowpits. You can always email us observations as well by clicking here, or sending a message to [email protected] or [email protected] .

General Conditions:

Powder is the primary condition out there and lots of it. Storm totals were in the 12-20” range and are starting to settle out a bit, especially on southerly aspects, where you may find a bit of a small zipper crust today. Snow depths are 48” at the Geyser Pass Trailhead and 73” in Gold Basin. Currently it is 12 degrees at the trailhead and 0 degrees on Pre-Laurel Peak with winds in the 10-15mph range from the NNE. The road was plowed a few days ago, but a few inches on the surface is making things slick, so 4WD and chains are recommended, but not necessary.

Mountain Weather:

Should be a beautiful day in the hills today, under mostly sunny skies with highs from 25-35 and light winds out of the NW. Tonight will be partly cloudy with a low in the teens and light winds shifting around to the SE. Tomorrow it should be partly cloudy for most of the day, with clouds building later on, highs near 30.

Avalanche Conditions:

The snowpack is still trying to adjust to our latest load of 1-2’ of new snow, and the signs of it not quite being there yet are out there. Yesterday, we were still able to get lots of collapsing on buried wind slabs and old crusts, on a variety of aspects. Although numerous snowpits were showing an absence of a slab in many locations, the winds have continued to blow from the NE-N and there is lots of evidence of wind transport and wind effected snow out there-it is hard to venture out into those locations safely to check them out! Remember, we have a significant weak layer buried under all of this new snow on northerly aspects, and a variety of crust/facet sandwiches on our southerly aspects-essentially, wait a bit before getting out into avalanche terrain.

The bottom line is an avalanche danger of MODERATE with pockets of CONSIDERABLE on wind loaded aspects at and above treeline on slopes steeper than 35 degrees. Below treeline the danger is limited to terrain that is open enough to avalanche; be extra weary of open terrain below 9,500’ and especially terrain traps. The January High Pressure really worked a number on these spots and a depth hoar snowpack in these locations will not be able to support the weight of the new snow; if it can then it may not be able to support your weight.

Remember a CONSIDERABLE danger means human triggered avalanches are PROBABLE and natural avalanches are possible.

Nordic and Skate Skiing: The Tag-a-Long snow cat was out and back to Tomasaki hut so the road should be packed out.