Manti-La Sal Avalanche Center

US Forest Service Manti-La Sal National Forest

Introduction: Good Afternoon! This is Max Forgensi with the USFS Manti-La Sal Avalanche Center with your avalanche and mountain weather advisory. Today is Sunday, January 9th, 2005 at 2:30 p.m. This bulletin is sponsored in part by Moab Desert Adventures, the professional rock climbing guide service of Moab, proud sponsors of the Friends of the Manti-La Sal Avalanche Center.

This advisory will expire in 24 hours. The next advisory will be posted Tuesday morning due to two avalanche accidents on the Manti Skyline yesterday.

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 AVALANCHE WARNING in effect for our region until will expire at 6pm, which includes the La Sal and Abajo Mountains. Very strong winds, rising temperatures and the forecasted new snow will raise the avalanche danger to HIGH for the weekend. Travel in or underneath avalanche terrain is not recommended. The winds of the past 36 hours have played havoc to our snow pack, tree skiing areas have been affected by the wind as well. Essentially, there is semi-supportable to supportable wind slabs in all areas. Let’s hope that this wind dies down and the clouds over the mountains produce some new snow. There is still a WINTER STORM WARNING in effect until Sunday Morning for a foot of new snow.

Current Conditions: (click location for latest data)

Geyser Pass Trailhead (9,600’): 33” at the SNOTEL site and about 42” at the snow stake with a temperature of 35 degrees at 13:00.

Pre-Laurel Peak (11,700’): 19 degrees with sustained winds in the 20 to 30 mph range and gusts into the 50’s and 60’s.

Gold Basin and South Mountain: Around 60” to 70” of settled snow on the ground.

Mountain Weather: (At 10,500’)

This Afternoon: Periods of snow. High will be around 31. Windy, with a south-southwest wind between 30 and 35 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New snow accumulation of less than 1 inch possible.
Tonight: Periods of snow. Low around 23. Windy, with a southwest wind between 30 and 35 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New snow accumulation of 4 to 8 inches possible.
Monday: Periods of snow. Cloudy. High will be around 29. Windy, with a southwest wind between 25 and 30 mph, gusts will be as high as 45 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New snow accumulation of 3 to 7 inches possible.

Avalanche Conditions

The storms just keep on rolling through, and we are back to a windy and warm storm for the next 2 days. The warming temperatures through out the day could create inversions in the new snow and snow transport. Warming temperatures during storms promotes unstable conditions in the upper parts of the snow pack. This past week’s new light density snow has been transported into deep hard slabs. Even with limited visibility observations yielded 3 very large avalanches, running well into their run-out zones and having fracture lines as deep as 8 feet. These avalanches ran on three different aspects and were above or just below tree line. The winds will predominantly be from the South-Southwest, but with their excessive speeds expect loading in gladed terrain and further down slopes, as well as in the usual places. Remember, there is an AVALANCHE WARNING in effect, so travel is not recommend on or near avalanche terrain, which we classify as slopes steeper than 30 degrees. Right now the avalanche danger is an overall CONSIDERABLE on all elevations and aspects with areas of HIGH danger on steep, wind-loaded slopes at and above treeline. Watch your slope angles and travel is not recommended below the run-out zones of avalanche paths.

Nordic and Skate Skiing:

There is a narrow skate track on the Geyser Pass road right now, but the winds and new snow will fill it in.