US Forest Service Manti-La Sal National Forest

 Introduction:  Good morning, this is Dave Medara with the USFS Manti-La Sal Avalanche Center with your avalanche and mountain weather advisory.  Today is Saturday, Dec 2nd, at 7:30AM. This advisory will expire in 24 hours.

 

CHECK OUT OUR NEW GROOMING EQUIPMENT 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:

Cold temperatures remain in place in the wake of this week’s storm and it looks like that will be the dominant weather factor through the weekend. There is some good powder snow out there but there is only barely enough snow to ski or ride on shady north and east facing slopes. Forget about south and west facing slopes until we get more snow. The coverage is spotty and the ground hazard significant. Heads up out there

 

The road the Geyser Pass trailhead is plowed and passable. Grooming begins this week on the Geyser Pass trails. 

 

Mountain Weather: (At 10,500’) –


Today...Partly cloudy in the morning...Then mostly cloudy with isolated snow showers in the afternoon. Highs 15 to 25. North winds 10 to 15 mph. Gusts up to 30 mph in the afternoon. Chance of snow 20 percent.
Tonight...Partly cloudy in the evening then clearing. Lows 5 below zero to 5 above. North winds 10 to 15 mph with gusts to around 30 mph.
Sunday...Sunny. Highs in the 20s. North winds 10 to 15 mph in the morning becoming light.

Next chance of snow is late in the week.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

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)

17”

 

12

Cold, no new snow

Geyser Pass

35”

 

N/a 

NW winds, cold

Gold Basin and South Mountain

25”

 

n/a

POWDER (& rocks!)

Pre-Laurel Peak Station (11,705’)

N/a 

N/a 

0

15-25 mph @ NNW

 

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

 

Not much new info since Max’s last avi report on Thursday. Check out some of the avalanches we saw on our tour last Wednesday here. There was widespread activity on North and NE facing slopes and the snowpack tests we did supported those observations. The La Sal snowpack is highly variable, layered, and showed a significant weakness at the old/new snow interface. It is worth noting that some of these slides stepped down to the ground and produced some pretty large avalanches.  Being 5 days out from the bulk of the storm with these cold temperatures is a definite stabilizing trend and winds out of the North are pushing snow onto south facing slopes stripping the load from the more tender shady slopes. While the hazard is on a decreasing trend, we still feel that there is a possibility of avalanches on steep North and NE facing slopes that have not run yet and are keeping the avalanche danger rating at MODERATE with pockets of CONSIDERABLE on high elevation N and NE facing slopes. Sunny side slopes have poor cover so stay clear until we get more snow, which seems like it’s going to be a while…We’ll update this forecast tomorrow morning, thanks for checking in.