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. 23rd, at 7:00 AM. 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. 

 

We still have room in our AIARE level I avalanche class here in Moab scheduled for Jan 5th – 7th. Best deal in the USA! Call 435-636-3363 for more details.

 

  

General Conditions:

North and south of us snow totals of up to 28 inches are coming being reported.  Somehow we got missed picking up only 6 inches of snow at our study plots in the La Sals. A foot of snow fell in the Abajo mountains. The Marketing people at the ski areas in Colorado are ecstatic and as long as you’re not trying to fly in or out of Denver to ski, the powder hounds are happy to. Well we went for an “adventure ski” yesterday descending the left side of the Funnel in to Gold Basin. We found a full range of conditions, including some good snow, but were somewhat disappointed by the lack of coverage and how dangerously thin the snowpack was in there. We were also impressed by how weak the snowpack was and experienced several collapses in the snowpack throughout our tour. Listen on for avalanche conditions. There is some good skiing and riding out there but be careful, the rotten snow under this new powder does offer much cushion against the ground hazards just below the surface.  We are currently at 95% of normal snowfall on the year.

 

 The road to the Geyser Pass is plowed but there are some drifts that will require a high clearance vehicle.

 

There are groomed skate and classic trails for cross-country skiers up and over Geyser Pass at the moment.

 

Mountain Weather: (At 10,500’) –

Today: Partly cloudy, with a high near 28. North wind between 5 and 10 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.
Tonight: Partly cloudy, with a low around 16. East wind around 5 mph becoming northwest.
Sunday: A 20 percent chance of snow before 11am. Partly cloudy, with a high near 26. North northwest wind 5 and 10 mph, gusts as high as 20 mph.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

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)

21.5”

0

20

Need more!

Geyser Pass

31”

 

N/a 

Rotten, punchy snow

Gold Basin and South Mountain

29.5”

0

n/a

POWDER over sugar

Pre-Laurel Peak Station (11,705’)

N/a 

N/a 

15

Light N winds

 

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

 

Not much going on out there in Avalanche land to report. We saw evidence of some avalanche activity in Horse Creek and Gold Basin in the 11 – 12000 ft elevation range that had run closer to the snowfall event. What we saw more of was evidence of wind. We’ve had two major wind events during or since the last storm, and as a result the upper elevations have been stripped of snow with slabs of snow being built up farther down slope than normal. We had to get down pretty far into the Funnel before we hit the soft powder, and when we did we didn’t like the sound or feel of it. We stayed really close to the ridge and played a very conservative game on the way down. The hollow sound of the wind affected snow and easy failures in our snowpit tests were alarming and we joked that we were lucky we only got 6 inches of new snow or we would have had some real problems. If we’d had more snow we wouldn’t have even considered going in there really. Right now we are calling the avalanche danger MODERATE, meaning that human triggered avalanches are possible. There are still some stiff wind slabs out there. The weather forecast is for unsettled weather over the SW into midweek with small amounts of precipitation possible, but no major storms. We’ll update this message tomorrow morning and Merry Christmas.