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 Sunday, January. 14th, 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.

General Conditions:

Cold temperatures are the dominant weather consideration right now with below zero temperatures at the Geyser Pass trailhead. Be ready for some winter conditions out there today folks. Check each other’s faces for frostbite and stay covered up. Snow totals on the mountain vary from 7- 12” as a result of the high winds that came in with this storm. It seems the winds have moved the snow around quite a bit and we found the coverage in the North Woods yesterday to be very disappointing. We saw very little in the way of avalanche activity, just not quite enough new snow. Read on for more on avalanche conditions.

The road to the Geyser Pass Trailhead has been plowed. Thank you Grand County. Great Job.

Skate and cross-country track is groomed into Gold Basin and the meadows above the GPTH.

Mountain Weather: (At 10,500’)

Rest Of Today...Partly cloudy. A 30 percent chance of snow early in the morning. Highs 15 to 25. Northwest winds 10 to 15 mph with gusts to around 30 mph.
Tonight...Partly cloudy in the evening then clearing. Lows zero to 10 below. North winds 10 to 15 mph.
Martin Luther King Jr Day...Mostly sunny. Highs in the 20s. North winds 10 to 15 mph.
Monday Night...Mostly clear. Lows zero to 10 below. North winds 10 to 15 mph.
Tuesday...Partly cloudy. Highs in the 20s.

Weather Station/ Location	Snow Depth (HS): in./cm	New Snow (HN) in./cm	6:00 a.m. Temp (F)	Current Observations: Wind, 48 hour snow
Geyser Pass Trailhead (9,600’): (snotel link)	21.5”	9”	-1	.7h2o, 9 inches new
Geyser Pass	40”	12”	brrrrrrrrrr	powder
Gold Basin and South Mountain	36”	7”	n/a	Powder, poor coverage
Pre-Laurel Peak Station (11,705’)	N/a	N/a	- 5.5	12mph Southerly, diminishing

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

The snow totals up high were not as impressive as they were on the road to the Geyser Pass TH. Our tour up the Laurel Highway revealed scoured slopes up high, poor coverage in the woods and development of wind slabs in loaded areas. We did not find the 12” of snow measured at Geyser Pass in Gold Basin and found wind slabs 8-10 inches thick in our snowpit on the backside of Julie’s Glade. Snowpits showed sensitivity in the new snow, but observations showed little avalanche activity indicating that despite the sensitivity of the new snow, there is not enough of a new load of snow to get an avalanche cycle going. For this reason we are dropping the avalanche danger rating to CONSIDERABLE, meaning that natural avalanches are possible and human triggered avalanches are likely. Likely trouble spots are north facing slopes near treeline and areas that are cross-loaded by consistent Southerly and Southwesterly winds. The distribution of the new snow with this storm has been variable, and just because we didn’t see as much snow as expected in Gold Basin, that doesn’t mean you won’t find more snow in other parts of the range and a correspondingly higher avalanche danger. Remember, we’ve had new snow on a weak old snowpack structure so as always, heads up out there.