Introduction: Good
morning! This is Max Forgensi with the
USFS Manti-La Sal Avalanche Center with your avalanche and mountain weather
advisory. Today is Wednesday, February
9th, 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 8 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 yesterday and is in
great shape.
Current Conditions: (click location for latest data)
Geyser
Pass Trailhead (9,600’): 43” at the
SNOTEL
Pre-Laurel
Peak (11,700’): The weather station
is down again, we will be up to fix it on Thursday.
Gold Basin and South Mountain:
Around 75” to 85” of settled snow on the ground.
Mountain Weather: (At 10,500’)
A high
pressure system will remain over the area until Thursday night, when a upper
level Low Pressure system will start to move in and hopefully produce some more
snow for the mountains.
Today:
Partly cloudy, high
near 29. Wind Chill values of 0-+10
expected. Winds will be out of the NNW
at 5 mph.
Tonight: Partly cloudy, low near 4.
Wind Chill values of –8 to –2 expected.
Winds will be out of the NE then veer to the SE at 10 mph.
Thursday: Mostly cloudy, high near 30.
Wind Chill values of –10 to 0 expected.
Winds will be out of the SW at 10-15 mph.
Avalanche Conditions:
The storm has left us 8” at the Geyser Pass Trailhead, 12” in
Gold Basin and even more up higher.
There is some serious density differences within the new snow, it is
kind of like a three layer cake, with the heaviest part in the middle. We suspect that in the middle of the storm,
the wind picked up for a couple of hours.
Another sign that the wind picked up during the storm is the fact there
is graupel mixed into the new snow as well.
With this new snow pack structure, there is widespread whoomphing. Yesterdays observations yielded numerous
loose snow avalanches on steep slopes, with a big one in Exxon’s Folly. Remember N-E aspects 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:
There
is a great Nordic Track going all the way to Gold Basin, for those venturing up
to Geyser Pass, happy trail breaking!