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 Wednesday, February 26th, 2004 at 7:30 a.m.

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 tropical air is continuing to sit on top of us-as a result warm temperatures and warm winds are abundant today. This is playing with our snow conditions a bit as it is 33 degrees at 9,600’ right now, and 19 at 11,700’. Winds have been nuking for the last 12 hours out of the S-SW in the 20-30mph range with gusts in the 40’s. The higher and shadier you go today, with out going out of treeline will bring you the best snow for skiing and riding, especially with Monday’s additional 2-4” of new snow. Down low and up high the snow will not be ideal. We have 46” on the ground at the trailhead and 70” on the ground in Gold Basin. In th

Mountain Weather:

A pacific storm is keeping things dark and gloomy around here, with lots of warm air and moisture at its disposal. This afternoon into tonight the snow should really kick in with 4-8” expected by tomorrow morning. Highs today will reach into the mid 30’s with some sustained winds from the S-SW at 15-20mph with gusts up to 30mph. Temperatures will drop into the 20’s tonight and winds will continue to blow hard.

Avalanche Conditions:

Our nickel and dime amounts of snow fall continue to pile up and add stress to the snowpack. In addition, the winds have been blowing hard from the south with plenty of new snow to transport and new slabs will be formed/forming on northerly aspects. Add into this equation another 4-8” of new snow this afternoon and tonight and we are building ourselves a bit of a precarious situation. Currently south aspects have a funky crust and facet sandwich that collapses underneath you left right and center. On northerly aspects there is an abundance of moderate shears 1-2 feet down in the snowpack. We haven’t seen any avalanche activity other than sluffing from our past two storms, which also makes me a bit nervous of this next storm-we haven’t reached the breaking point but now we might. Essentially this boils down to a MODERATE danger with pockets of CONSIDERABLE on all aspects, but especially wind loaded terrain on slopes steeper than 35 degrees. As the snow starts to fly, the danger could rise to a blanket CONSIDERABLE or even higher-there are lots of signs out there right now, and there will be plenty in the next 24-48 hours to warn you about traveling in avalanche terrain-heed their warnings!

Remember that a MODERATE avalanche danger means human triggered avalanches are possible, while CONSIDERABLE danger means human triggered avalanches are probable and natural avalanches are possible.

Nordic and Skate Skiing:

The Lasaloppet is just around the corner, so get in shape. Wax for warm snow temps. There is a decent traditional track in right now to Geyser Pass.