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, December 30th at 8:30 am. This advisory will expire in 24 hours.

 

WE ARE STARTING TO FILL UP OUR AIARE LEVEL 1 AND LEVEL 2 CLASSES BEING HELD IN THE LA SALS THIS YEAR.  THE LEVEL 1 IS FEBRUARY 3RD-5TH (FRI-SUN), WHILE OUR LEVEL 2 IS MARCH 3RD-6TH  (FRI-MON).  CALL (435) 636-3363 FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO SIGN UP.  EACH CLASS IS LIMITED TO 12 STUDENTS.  TUITION GOES DIRECTLY TOWARDS THE FRIENDS OF THE MANTI-LA SAL AVALANCHE CENTER.

 

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:

Eastern Utah is in a good flow for some precipitation for the next five days with the first chance of moisture coming Saturday night.  Yesterday we received one inch of new snow at the Geyser Pass Trailhead and maybe three inches up high…not enough to drastically change the backcountry skiing conditions.  It is still very “woodsy” skiing out there right now.  The snow on the ground did get to move around a bit, so read on to the Avalanche Conditions to find out more. 

            Yesterday the Grand County Road Department was able to plow the Geyser Pass Road.  Even so, 4WD and chains will definitely assist you in getting through some of those icy spots.  The Nordic and Skate skiing is still your best bet for exercise today as snowmobile traffic has made a good surface. 

 

Current Conditions: (click location for latest data)

Geyser Pass Trailhead (9,600’):  8.4” at the SNOTEL.  15” at the GPTH Snowstake, 1” in the past 48 hours. 22 degrees at the Geyser Pass trailhead at 7:00 a.m.  22 degrees in Moab.

Gold Basin and South Mountain:  At least 21” of settled snow on the ground.

Pre-Laurel Peak Weather Station (11,705’):  Still Struggling with the weather station. Had contact, lost contact. The drama continues with new hardware.

 

Mountain Weather: (At 10,500’)

Today: Mostly cloudy, with a high around 32. West wind around 15 mph.
Tonight: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 19. West southwest wind around 15 mph.
Saturday: A 30 percent chance of snow. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 33. Breezy, with a west southwest wind between 15 and 25 mph, with gusts as high as 35 mph.
Saturday Night: A 50 percent chance of snow. Cloudy, with a low near 21. Windy, with a west southwest wind between 25 and 30 mph, with gusts as high as 45 mph. New snow accumulation of 2 to 4 inches possible.

 

Avalanche Conditions: (Link to the International Avalanche Danger Scale here)

Wind, snow and sun.  The more you have, the more the snow likes to change.  In the lower elevations, the warm weather we received a couple of days ago made for a nice ½” thick sun crust on South-SW-West aspects.  In the upper elevations, strong transport winds out of the Southwest during the precipitation event transported snow onto East-Northeast-North-Northwest aspects.  This has created a small 3-4” thick hard wind slab on leeward sides of ridges and at the top of starting zones.  Whoomphing was observed, but no natural avalanches.  This slab is sitting on top of a very rotten (read: depth hoar) layer on these slopes.  At the current time, there isn’t enough weight on top of this weak snow to trigger a natural avalanche, but if you add a human into the equation, some places might be triggered.  The BOTTOM LINE for today is going to be an avalanche danger of MODERATE on steep N-NE-E aspects at or above tree-line.  The rest of the range is going to be LOW.