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 Friday, March 11th, 2005 at 8:00 am.  This bulletin is sponsored in part by Western Spirit, offering cycling adventures in Moab and beyond, 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:

Spring-like conditions continue to dominated the region, and it appears that it will stay this way for at least a couple of more days.  Temperatures at the Geyser Pass Trailhead are reaching into the upper 40’s each day around noon and freezing for at least a couple of hours at night.  What does that mean?  It is a ripe time to go and farm the corn on South and West aspects, while on those sun-protected North aspects, you can still find some consolidated powder.  The upper elevations are still holding some cold snow (>11,000’) on East and North aspects. 

The road to the Geyser Pass Trailhead is muddy at the bottom and snowy at the top, 4WD is still recommended. 

 

Current Conditions: (click location for latest data)

Geyser Pass Trailhead (9,600’):  43” at the SNOTEL, it is 30 degrees at the TH at 6:00 am.,  

Pre-Laurel Peak (11,700’): still trying to fix it!   

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

 

Mountain Weather: (At 10,500’)

A high-pressure system is located over the Great Basin which will keep a dry pattern in the region through Saturday night.  A low pressure system will develop beginning Saturday night, hopefully bringing some snow this way.    

Today: Mostly sunny.  High in the 40’s.  Winds will be out of the North at 5 mph.   
Tonight: Mostly clear.  Low near 27.  Winds will be out of the West-Northwest at 5-10 mph, gusting to 20.    

Saturday:  Mostly sunny.  High near 46.  Winds will be out of the West-Northwest at 10 mph, gusting to 20. 

 

Avalanche Conditions:

The lack of any new snow in the past two weeks is definitely helping the snow pack heal, although there could be some instabilities that you might want to know about.  There have been reports in Colorado of a few avalanches that were triggered by skiers, most of which failed on buried weak layers; buried surface hoar and facets.  These instabilities can still be lurking on protected North through East aspects.  Where will they react?  Probably on steep slopes greater than 35 degrees where there are trigger points.  ON the other side of the compass, on those West and South aspects, we are now concerned with wet slab avalanches.  It has been warm enough each day for the snow on these aspects to lose its cohesion.  Each day, more water is able to percolate down into the snow pack, potentially creating a very good bed surface to slide on.  On high elevation Southerly aspects, be weary of recently deposited wind slabs that are have been created due to moderate winds out of the North.  
The Bottom Line for today is a avalanche danger of LOW on South through West aspects that will rise to MODERATE when the sun starts to bake those aspects, primarily after noon.  If the snow starts to get slushy and you start to punch through the snow, it is time to get off these aspects.  
On North through East aspects, the avalanche danger is
LOW with pockets of MODERATE where buried weaknesses exist in combination with a steep pitch and trigger points. 
 
 

Nordic and Skate Skiing:

Warm conditions and snowmobile traffic equals slippery Nordic conditions, although Skating conditions will be fast.