Manti La-Sal Avalanche Center                                                                                                                  Snow, Weather, and Avalanche Advisory

 

 

Good morning, this is Evan Stevens with the USFS Manti-La Sal Avalanche Center with your with your avalanche and mountain weather advisory for the Wasatch Plateau/Manti Skyline Region, including, but not limited to Huntington, Ephraim and Fairview Canyons.  This advisory is brought to you through a partnership of Utah State Parks and the USFS.  It is Saturday, January 22nd, 2005 at 7:30 a.m. 

 

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. 

 

Don’t forget we have a FREE 3 day AIARE Level 1 avalanche course coming up on February 4th through the 6th in Mt. Pleasant.  Call us at (435) 636 3363 to register.

 

Current Conditions:

With no end in sight to our high pressure system, make sure you do not forget your sunscreen and sunglasses if you are heading out on the skyline.  Good settled powder conditions can still be found on shady northerly aspects, while the southerly slopes will have a mixed bag of crust and supportable snow before the sun hits them and some soft glop later on in the day-great corn conditions can be found with the right timing.  The roads are in great shape, just make sure you park with in the white lines off of the travel lanes. The Mammoth/Cottonwood SNOTEL site has 42” of snow on the stake.  The Miller Flat Reservoir Trailhead has 42” of snow on the ground.  It is currently 17 degrees out on the Skyline.   

 

Mountain Weather:

Sunny and warm as far as the eye can see…

Today...Mostly sunny. Highs at 8000 feet in the upper 40s.
Tonight...Mostly clear. Lows at 8000 feet in the lower 30s.
Sunday...Mostly sunny. Highs at 8000 feet in the upper 40s.

 

Avalanche Conditions:

Our last recorded snowfall and observed avalanche activity is now about 10 to 12 days in the past.  Since then temperatures have skyrocketed, with highs yesterday into the mid 50’s!  What does this mean for our snowpack stability?  We have three concerns right now.  The first, although diminishing in probability is still the SCARY possibility of triggered a large slab on steep and shady slopes that have not avalanched recently.  The second concern is for wet snow slides on sunny aspects, and especially lower elevations, as the day heats up-watch your consequences, make sure these heavy, slow and concrete like avalanches don’t take you into any objects.  Once you start to see rollerballs it is time to leave that terrain.  Finally, don’t venture out too far onto the monster cornices that are lingering everywhere on the skyline, keep back further than you think!  This means an overall avalanche danger of MODERATE on the aforementioned terrain.

 

Thanks for calling…this advisory will be updated by Sunday morning.