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 Monday, February 9th, 2004 at 8:15am.

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General Conditions:

The cold air continues to stay in place…currently it is 5 degrees at the trailhead and 0 up at Pre-laurel Peak. Winds have been light out of the N-NW, keeping the cool temps in place. Turning conditions are deep and plentiful, even on southerly aspects, although you might bounce off a buried crust. The twist of fate though is that the deep fresh snow means you need to find steep slopes to ski and ride-but the avalanche danger is keeping me away from those. 4WD and chains are recommended. Base depths range from 48” at 9,500’ to 72” in Gold Basin, with 4-8” of new extremely light density snow from Saturday Night and Sunday’s snow fall.

Mountain Weather:

Clear and cool for the nest few days. Winds may pick up tonight, but look for temps in the mid 20’s at 9,500’, and the teens up higher today with light winds out of the NNE. The forecast calls for a warming trend after Thursday, with no storms on the horizon.

Avalanche Conditions:

After teaching an avalanche class for the last few days, almost all of the students tending to agree that they really didn’t want to be on slopes steeper than 35 degrees. Collapsing of the snowpack was common yesterday, as well as an abundance of sluffs in the new light density snow. Most snow pit tests led us to believe that a variety of sensitive conditions exist out there and the cold weather will maintain these conditions. First is the weak old snow below about 10,000’ in the shade and in terrain traps. The new snow load is barely being supported in these areas and you may be the one to tip the scales toward an avalanche. Above 10,000’ the bottom of the snowpack is relatively strong; however on top of that and underneath our new snow is the old weak snow from the January High Pressure. With some wind slabs poised on top of these layers, collapsing and easy failures in snowpit tests were common. Today, the avalanche danger will continue to be CONSIDERABLE on slopes steeper than 35 degrees on wind loaded terrain at and above treeline, especially NE-NW aspects. Be wary of sluffing on steep shady slopes-make sure they don’t take you for a nasty ride. Below treeline, especially below 10,000’, the danger is confined to open avalanche terrain and terrain traps, where the weak January snow resides in abundance-in these locations there is a CONSIDERABLE danger as well. Your best bet is to know how to avoid avalanche terrain, and stick to the tight trees or lower angle slopes.

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