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 Sunday, March 4th, 2007, at 7:30 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:

The skiing conditions are great! West aspects have supportable bases and creamy powder. North aspects have deep powder, although punchy in spots. Once you get above tree-line, the Great North winds from Friday night scoured ridgelines and destroyed the fluff. Hollow sounding hard-slabs & cross-loaded slopes have been left in the quiet aftermath. Visibility yesterday finally allowed for some avalanche observations. Read on for more information.

If your heading out today, the warm-up is on. Bring plenty of sun-screen and a spring hat!

L.U.N.A. was up on Thursday and groomed the entire track. And the Grand County Road Department did a great job plowing the road.

Mountain Weather: (At 10,500’)

Today: Mostly sunny, with a high near 36. Calm wind becoming south southwest around 5 mph.
Tonight: Partly cloudy, with a low around 20. Southwest wind around 5 mph.
Monday: Partly cloudy, with a high near 39. Southwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm.
Monday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 23. South southwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm.

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)	38”	0	19	Sun-affected powder
Geyser Pass	55”	0	N/a	Groomed Track
Gold Basin and South Mountain	55”	0	n/a	Powder
Pre-Laurel Peak Station (11,705’)	N/a	N/a	23.6	N winds @ 3 gust to 6

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

With warming temperatures and light winds, the natural avalanche cycle is all but over. If we get the warm-up as expected, there could be some wet-point releases on South-West aspects in the afternoon. In the middle massif, 5 sizeable avalanches were recorded on S-SE-NE-N aspects, the most photogenic being a HS-N-R4D2-WI avalanche in the Little Tuk No Slide Path. Three of the avalanches were due to cross-loading, and the other two started around cliff bands. They all started around tree-line. None of them slid to the ground. There are places in the alpine with tons of snow in place & they look plump. I would definitely give these areas some time to heal before hitting these big lines. As a result the BOTTOM LINE for today is going to be an avalanche danger of CONSIDERABLE on any steep slope greater than 35 degrees on N-NE-E-SE slopes. Avoid cross-loaded slopes and pronounced trigger points such as cliff bands.