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 leap day Monday, March 1st, 2004 at 8:30 a.m.

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General Conditions:

The storm has cleared and the sun is shining with temperatures in the low teens at 9,600’. With another 4-8” of snow in the last 24 hours, our storm totals are in the 14-22” range and are providing for some amazing skiing and riding. The last burst of the storm came in with light density snow and little winds-powder is abundant. The crust can still be felt on southerly aspects, and they will heat up quick today, under clear skies. Northerly aspects are your best bet this time of year. The road should be plowed by noon today, and until then it will be difficult, if not impossible to make it to the Geyser Pass Trailhead. Our snow depths are around 58” at the trailhead and near 80” in Gold Basin.

Mountain Weather:

Today: Partly cloudy with a high near 30 at 9,000’

Tonight: A system begins to move into our region to the south of us. Clouds increase with a low of 5-15 and winds in the 10-15mph from the SE.

Tomorrow: Up to 2” of new snow with a high near 30 and a SE wind at 10-20mph.

Tomorrow Night: Up to 2” of new snow with a low in the 10-20 degree range.

Avalanche Conditions:

With 1-2’ storm totals and about 1.2” of water, we have added a ton of weight to our snowpack. However, it has fallen in a staccato fashion-3-8” increments per day since Thursday. So just as the snow pack has come close to the point of failure, the snowfall eased off and the snowpack adjusted. However, it was quite obvious in the mountains, that things are close to the point of failure and the weight of a winter traveler is all that is needed to bring the house down. A skier triggered avalanche occurred on Saturday, on a 30 degree, NW facing slope at about 10,000’. It was about a foot deep and 40 feet wide failing at the old snow-new snow interface. Yesterday also saw a ton of collapses and shooting cracks, with some 2 foot deep 40 foot long gaping cracks opening up at my feet on a NW aspect at about 11,000’. Basically, it is pretty clear what the avalanche danger is out there today…loads of signs are out there-the snowpack needs a few days to settle down and adjust. So, this boils down to an avalanche danger of CONSIDERABLE on terrain steeper than 35 degrees at all aspects and elevations. Any aspect that receives a hint of sunshine has a precarious crust-facet combination below the new snow and is apt to fail. Northerly aspects below about 10,000’ have an abundance of weak faceted snow as well. The picture is complex-things are highly variable as you move from one slope to the next or different parts of the same slopes-evaluate as you go, and always practice safe travel techniques.

CONSIDERABLE danger means human triggered avalanches are probable and natural avalanches are possible.

Nordic and Skate Skiing:

New snow-things will be slow.