Manti-La Sal Avalanche Center

US Forest Service Manti-La Sal National Forest

Introduction: Good Morning! This is Max Forgensi with the USFS Manti-La Sal Avalanche Center with your avalanche and mountain weather advisory. Today is Saturday, January 22nd, 2005 at 7:30 am. This bulletin is sponsored in part by Canyon Voyages, Moab’s finest river running and retail store, proud sponsors of the Friends of the Manti-La Sal Avalanche Center. This advisory will expire in 24 hours and should be updated Sundaybmorning.

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:

High Pressure. The January thaw is holding strong in the Moab area, folks around town are using this weather to start their multi-sport adventures. The High Pressure system is going to stay in place for another week, a blocking ridge over the Great Basin is preventing any of the white stuff from coming our way. The temperatures reached into the upper forties yesterday at the trailhead! Snow conditions range from settled powder on North aspects above 10,000’ to some corn conditions on South-West aspects. The road is in great shape to Geyser Pass, go up and enjoy the snow!

Current Conditions: (click location for latest data)

Geyser Pass Trailhead (9,600’): 33.6” at the SNOTEL site with a temperature of 33 degrees at 6:00 am.

Pre-Laurel Peak (11,700’): The weather station is down due to an alignment problem with the antenna, we’ll be up there soon to fix the problem.

Gold Basin and South Mountain: Around 65” to 70” of settled snow on the ground.

Mountain Weather: (At 10,500’)

Today: Mostly sunny, high near 45. Winds will be start off calm this morning and then start moving out of the South at 5-10 mph, gusting to 20.

Tonight: Mostly clear. Low near 24. Winds will be out of the South at 5 mph.

Sunday: Mostly sunny, high near 44. Winds will be out of the S-SW at 0-5 mph.

Avalanche Conditions

The “cold” natural avalanche cycle is pretty much over, and these recent warm temperatures bring up another concern…wet avalanches. The sun intensity on South-West aspects has increased, increasing the avalanche danger on these slopes as the day-time temperatures and sun-intensity increases. Signs of instability on these slopes such as pin-wheels, snowrollers or cinnamon rolls (all the same thing) give you visual clues that the snow on these slopes is losing its cohesion and could produce avalanches with the proper stress being you. There will be times that these slopes will hold some nice corn conditions, but once you start sinking into the snow or seeing these snow-rollers, it is time to be venturing off these aspects. On the other side of the compass, North-Northeast aspects could have pockets of snow that might fail under a skiers weight. The recent warm temperatures have affected the stability of the snow layers near the surface on these aspects, but not warm enough to start to stabilize any weaknesses deep within the snow pack. The bottom line for today is that there is a MODERATE avalanche danger on N-NE slopes greater than 35 degrees throughout the day, and a MODERATE avalanche danger on steep S-W aspects as the sun intensity and ambient temperature increases, primarily past 11 am.

Nordic and Skate Skiing:

Your wax arsenal should include the full gambit for today.