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 31st at 9:30am. This advisory will expire in 24 hours.

CHECK OUT OUR NEW GROOMING EQUIPMENT HERE. Check out photos of a large avalanche in Dorry Canyon here.

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.

Please give us your observations from the field HERE. The more observations we get, the better this forecast can be.

General Conditions:

Storm totals from the past few days is 12” in Gold Basin and 8” at the Geyser Pass Trailhead. At 8:00 a.m. the temperature at the trailhead was 31 degrees. These are some of best conditions we have seen all season long! Powder can be found on North facing aspects and the corn skiing conditions on East/South/West aspects are coming into their own as the sun stays out longer and is higher in the sky. Well, corn conditions this weekend might not be the best, but it is time to think about the time your skiing each aspect. Use these longer days and get out earlier! Cross country and skate skiing conditions will be dependent on the amount of traffic heading up to Geyser Pass. Next week we will be taking the new grooming equipment (the actual groomer) out for a spin, check back next week for when this will happen…probably next Friday.

Mountain Weather: (At 10,500’) –

Today: Mostly cloudy, with a high around 37. Breezy, with a south southwest wind between 10 and 20 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph.
Tonight: A 50 percent chance of snow showers, mainly after 11pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 28. Breezy, with a south southwest wind between 15 and 20 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. New snow accumulation of less than one inch possible.
Saturday: A 50 percent chance of snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high around 33. Southwest wind around 15 mph, with gusts as high as 35 mph. New snow accumulation of around an inch possible.

Weather Station/ Location	Snow Depth (HS): in./cm	New Snow (HN) in./cm	7:00 a.m. Temp (F)	Current Observations: Wind, 48 hour snow
Geyser Pass Trailhead (9,600’): (snotel link)	46”	0	31	Storm totals of 7”-8”
Geyser Pass	85” est.		N/a	Settled Powder
Gold Basin and South Mountain	~	0	n/a	12” from this weeks storm
Pre-Laurel Peak Station (11,705’)	N/a	N/a	16 degrees	Winds out of the South at 25 mph, gusting to 43

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

Observations yesterday showed that the new snow/old snow interface is where most the avalanches are occurring, in the form of loose snow avalanches or sluffs. That was before the wind picked up this morning. Transport winds this morning out of the SSW (and increasing) will be moving any available snow from high elevation fetch areas onto N-E aspects, potentially depositing drifts up to 1’-2’ deep. Our neighbors to the East, the San Juans, reported some large slab avalanches on upper elevation N-E aspects with similar storm totals. On our South-West solar aspects, today you might see some small wet point releases if it warms up like it has the past 5 days. The BOTTOM LINE for today will be an avalanche danger of CONSIDERABLE on steep, above-treeline slopes on North through East aspects. The rest of the mountain range will have a avalanche danger of MODERATE. Thanks for checking in!