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 Monday, February 8th, 2005 at 8:30 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.

 

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 weather is clearing to greet us with 9 to 16 inches of new snow, a thankfully refreshing coating to the mountains.  You can expect to find powder skiing and riding on wind sheltered slopes and in the trees at all elevations and aspects, with snow depths increasing with altitude.  As you poke out of the trees and wind shadows the snow will be wind effected, so choose your slopes wisely for some enjoyable conditions.  The road was plowed by noon yesterday, but another half a foot of snow has fallen since then-4WD and chains are recommended.

 

Current Conditions: (click location for latest data)

Geyser Pass Trailhead (9,600’):  43” at the SNOTEL site with a temperature of 15 degrees at 7:00 am. 

Pre-Laurel Peak (11,700’):  some riming from early on in the storm has knocked out the station-yesterday observed winds were from the S to SW at around 15-25mph.

Gold Basin and South Mountain:  Around 75” to 85” of settled snow on the ground. 

 

Mountain Weather: (At 10,500’)

Winds should stay light and temperatures cool as the day clears out-great day to be in the hills!

Today: A 50 percent chance of snow before noon. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 24. West southwest wind between 5 and 10 mph. New snow accumulation of around an inch possible.
Tonight: Partly cloudy, with a low around 4. Wind chill values between -2 and -7. West northwest wind between 5 and 10 mph.
Wednesday: Partly cloudy, with a high around 29. Wind chill values between -7 and 3. North northwest wind around 5 mph.

 

Avalanche Conditions:

The storm is clearing and the last 36 hours have brought us on average at least a foot of new snow.  The weather came in warm and gradually cooled off, with temperatures decreasing for the entire 36 hour period.  Winds have also decrease since last night, but not before they created abundant shallow soft slabs on lee and cross-loaded slopes.  Yesterday afternoon, my partner and I observed abundant cracking of the new snow on cross-loaded steep NW aspects of about 6-10” deep.  Since then another 6 inches of new snow has fallen with strong SW winds, so expect to find slabs of 1 to 1.5 feet on these lee and cross-loaded slopes today.  In most places I suspect that the new snow amounts were not deep enough to cause an extensive natural cycle-maybe a small one last night, but today is probably a day where the weight of a backcountry traveler will trigger slides in the new snow.  Remember that many places had some significant surface hoar and facets on the snow surface before this storm, and it is now acting as a weak layer for slides to fail on.  The last clue for travelers today is that the last few inches of snow came in light and calm and may be hiding the wind effected surface texture of slabby snow out there, so don’t be fooled-poke around in the snow  and look for test slopes.  What does this all boil down to?  A CONSIDERABLE avalanche danger on slopes steeper than 35 degrees on lee and cross-loaded slopes and gullies.  Look for the most loading on NW-N-NE aspects.  All other slopes less than about 35 degrees have a MODERATE to LOW danger.  Remember a CONSIDERABLE danger means human triggered avalanches are probable, and natural avalanches are possible.

 

Nordic and Skate Skiing:

Plenty of new snow means some fitness enhancing trailbreaking across the range today.