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 13th,
2004 at 7:45am.
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:
The cold air is moving out of the area as we have hit our 36 hour
high temperature at 6am this morning!
Right now it is 18 degrees at 9,600’ and 7 at 11,700’ with winds howling
at 37mph with gusts to 74 from the North.
Snow depths are in the 3.5-5.5 foot range with some great settled powder
on the surface in sheltered and shady locations. Southerly aspects have a bit of a zipper crust, while above
treeline spots are sporting some wind affected snow. The road is plowed and in great shape.
Mountain Weather:
Bit of a blah weather pattern.
Now that the cold is on its way out, we will be skirted by some storms
tracking well away from our area. Look
for clouds giving way to mostly sunny skies and temps in the 20s today,
accompanied by winds at 10-15mph from the NE. Tonight is more of the same, with lows in the single digits, while
tomorrow should see some cute significant others being your valentine in the
backcountry with increasing clouds.
Avalanche Conditions:
It has been about 5 days since our last storm and collapsing is
still common place. The scary pieces of
snow out there are definetly becoming a bit more stubborn, but there are still
some places out there that tickly my spine.
Near and above treeline locations in gullies and bowls, and scruffy tree
bands near ridge lines on slopes steeper than 35 degrees look like they have
slabs in place. If I was going to
search for some big lines, I might take the most wind scoured ones I could
find, with escape routes in the rocks.
Remember that our February snows are sitting on top of our January weak
facets-an unfavorable combination. Keep
an eye on the latest strong winds for the occasional fresh slab to develop just
above treeline and in cross-loaded gullies, but I am not too concerned with new
slab development; the bigger concern is
losing your hat! What this all
translates too is an avalanche danger of MODERATE with pockets of CONSIDERABLE on slopes steeper
than 35 degrees on loaded aspects at and above treeline, with extra caution
needed for terrain traps and open lower elevation areas, below treeline areas.
Remember a CONSIDERABLE danger means
human triggered avalanches are PROBABLE and natural avalanches are
possible, while MODERATE danger means
human triggered avalanches are possible.
Nordic and Skate Skiing:
With some descent tracks packed in out there it’s a great
option. Snowmobile traffic on the
Geyser Pass Road may have made it wide enough to skate.