Manti-La Sal Avalanche Center

US Forest Service Manti-La Sal National Forest

Introduction: Good Morning! This is Evan Stevens with the USFS Manti-La Sal Avalanche Center with your avalanche and mountain weather advisory for the Wasatch Plateau/Manti Skyline Region, including but not limited to Ephraim, Huntington and Fairview Canyons. This advisory is brought to you through a partnership with Utah State Parks. Today is Saturday, January 29^th, 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.

Remember, next weekend is our FREE 3 day Level 1 avalanche course for skiers and snowboarders in Mt. Pleasant. Call us at 636 3363 for info and to register. We will also put on another class for snowmobilers if there is enough interest, so call us up!

General Conditions:

A few inches, about 2-6”, have fallen over the last few days on the skyline region. This wet and heavy shallow blanket of new snow has freshened conditions up a little bit, but is not enough to cover up old tracks. As a result riding conditions are slightly improved from the corny and crusty ones of late, but not exceptional-still good enough to have a fun time on, especially if you can find the random pocket that hasn’t been tracked out. Skies were mostly cloudy yesterday and should stay like that today meaning surface snow conditions will be soft and not crusty. The road is plowed but snowpacked so 4WD is recommended.

Current Conditions (6 a.m.):

Miller Flat (8,800’): 42” of settled snow on the ground with 4-6” of new snow since Thursday. It is about 21 degrees right now.

Top of the Skyline: 50 to 70” of settled snow on the ground with about 4-6” of new snow since Thursday.

Mountain Weather: (At 8,000’)

A weak and warm storm will continue to put out a sporadic inche or two of snow.

Today...Snow likely. Accumulation 1-4 inches. Highs at 8000 feet in the lower 30s. Chance of snow 70 percent.
Tonight...Mostly cloudy with a 40 percent chance of snow. Lows at 8000 feet 15-20.
Sunday...Mostly cloudy with a 30 percent chance of snow. Highs at 8000 feet in the lower 30s.

Avalanche Conditions:

The somewhat dull and benign avalanche pattern continues on for the skyline this weekend. Although there have been a few inches of new snow, it has not been of significant accumulation amounts, or been accompanied by any significant new winds. So, although we may have some old crusty surfaces on SW-S-SE aspects and some old surface facets on the Northerly aspects, providing plenty of weak layers and bed surfaces for avalanches, we do not have a significant slab on top. So what does this mean for the avalanche danger? Until the winds increase dramatically or the snow starts to pile up today, the danger will be mostly LOW on all slopes and aspects. But, if a few more inches of snow fall and the winds pick up, expect to see shallow wind slabs developing just below ridges and cornices and the danger increasing to MODERATE-keep an eye to the sky to gauge the increase in the avalanche danger.