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 New Year’s Day, January 1^st, 2005 at 11:30 a.m.

To see past advisories check out the ARCHIVE. To see current conditions go to our WEATHER PAGE. To see photos go to the AVIPHOTOS page.

General Conditions:

The new year has dawned clear and sunny, with the winds still blowing a bit. You can expect about 2-4 inches of new snow out there covering up a variety of surfaces from wind-hammered sastrugi to solid hard slabs, to breakable and punchy wind slabs and even a little bit of supportable powder-ish style conditions. The winds from this past week have hit every slope and aspect out there, so don’t be surprised when your favorite line in the trees has a some timber down across it and it is sporting a fresh wind slab.

Current Conditions: (click location for latest data)

Geyser Pass Trailhead (9,600’): 30” of snow on the ground and 24 degrees.

Pre-Laurel Peak (11,700’): 8 degrees, and the winds are averaging 24 mph out of the SSE with gusts as high as 40

Gold Basin has about 40” to 50” of settled snow on the ground.

Mountain Weather: (At 10,500’)

NewYear's Day: Partly cloudy, with a high around 25. Wind chill values between zero and 10. South southwest wind around 15 mph, with gusts as high as 35 mph.
Tonight: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 5. Wind chill values between -2 and -10. Breezy, with a south wind between 15 and 20 mph, with gusts as high as 35 mph.
Sunday: A 20 percent chance of snow. Partly cloudy, with a high around 28. Wind chill values between -1 and -11. South southwest wind around 15 mph, with gusts as high as 35 mph.

Avalanche Conditions:

The sun is shinning and a little bit of new snow dusts the surface out there, but don’t be fooled. There is a very mixed bag of conditions to deal with, and the new snow where it is not wind hammered from the last 24 hours of sustained winds in the 20-30mph range will be hiding a variety of old hard,semi-hard and soft slabs at all elevations and aspects. Yesterday it was tough to pin down any evidence of avalanche activity above treeline, but as soon as we moved to steeper terrain deep in the trees, every steep roll of the slopes either had an old avalanche crown or would collapse and shoot cracks out 5-30 feet in front of you. I expect more of conditions like this for the next few days, so heads up out there, the trees are not providing a great amount of security right now on slopes steeper than 35 degrees. Plenty of safe travel options exist out there right now, like wind scoured alpine ridges and lower angle terrain, so utilize those. This all boils down to an overall avalanche danger of CONSIDERABLE on all aspects on terrain steeper than 35 degrees, including small pockets in the trees and other unlikely/unusual locations.

Nordic and Skate Skiing:

The Geyser Pass Road was packed out by tons of snowmobile traffic and was probably offering up some good skate an Nordic skiing conditions…go enjoy!