Happy New Year! The Red Rock Desert is in the middle of a great dose of wintersport. All over southeast Utah, go-getters are getting out in refreshing locations with innovative modes of transportation. Skate-skiers are skiing up Sand Flats Road, Nordic skiers heading up Pack Creek proper, fat-tire mountain bikers cruising the hard pack and tracked motorcycles enjoying the aspens. How revitalizing is that?

Our fairly stable snow pack is allowing parties to venture farther in the backcountry under blue bird skies. After celebrating the New Year with family and friends, the UAC-Moab is heading up Wednesday (1/2/13) to gather some much needed intel to put a proper forecast out for Thursday, then Saturday.

By Thursday mornings forecast, the conditions of the roads, grooming and snow stability (and quality) will be better known. Until then, keep on staying active and enjoying the snow!

Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around 6. North wind around 5 mph.

Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 21. North wind around 5 mph.

Wednesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 7. Northeast wind around 10 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.

Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 25. East northeast wind 10 to 15 mph becoming light and variable in the afternoon.

Thursday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 13. Calm wind becoming east around 5 mph after midnight.

Friday: Sunny, with a high near 31.

The Friends of the La Sal Avalanche Center are have been an important partner to the forecast office in Moab for over 20 years.

Go to their website to donate.  They help with purchasing weather instrumentation, provide field observers and upkeep 3 weather stations in the La Sal and Abajo Mountains.  Thanks!   

The Utah Avalanche Center-Moab will be holding a Basic Avalanche Awareness talk on Friday, January 18th at 6:30 pm at the Grand County Library.  The following day, January 19th, there will be an avalanche rescue clinic at the Geyser Pass TH. 

On February 1st through the 3rd, the UAC-Moab is hosting a Level I AIARE Avalanche Course.  Interested?  Call Max Forgensi at his office phone (435-636-3355) for more details and to sign up.