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 Sunday, March 13th, 2005 at 7:30 am. This bulletin is sponsored in part by Poison Spider, Moab’s finest bike shop, 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:

Cold weather is starting to filter into the La Sal Mountains and this morning we are seeing the coldest temperatures for quite some time, 27 degrees at 6:00 am. The corn cycle will be limited today, if it warms up enough at all. Expect supportable hard wind slabs on West-North aspects up high, while Southerly aspects will be supportable sun-crusts. The south and west aspects today above tree line will probably stay below freezing. You can still find some wonderful consolidated powder on sheltered North aspects below tree-line.

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

Current Conditions: (click location for latest data)

Geyser Pass Trailhead (9,600’): 41” at the SNOTEL, it is 27 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’)

Much cooler and unsettled weather is starting to filter towards the four corners area, where on Monday the trough of this low pressure will sit. Hopefully we’ll get some snow out of this disturbance.

Today: Partly cloudy. High 35 degrees. Winds will be blustery on out of the NNW at 15-20 mph.
Tonight: Partly cloudy. Low near 7. Wind chill values of –7 to 3. Winds will be out of the NNE at 10 mph, gusting to 25.

Monday: 40% chance of snow. Mostly cloudy with a high near 20. Wind chill values of –6 to 4. Winds will be out of the NE at 10-20, gusting to 30.

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. Trigger points include steep convex rollovers, below wind-loaded ridges, shallow rocky areas and trees. On those West through South aspects, the avalanche danger will be limited due to the lack of daytime heating. The Bottom Line for today is a avalanche danger of LOW on South through West 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.