Introduction: Good
morning! This is Evan Stevens with
the USFS Manti-La Sal Avalanche Center with your avalanche and mountain weather
advisory. Today is Easter Sunday,
March 27th, 2005 at 7:30 am.
This bulletin is sponsored in part by Poison Spider, Moab’s finest
bike shop, proud sponsors of the Friends of the Manti-La Sal Avalanche
Center. This advisory will expire
in 24 hours.
THERE WILL BE AN OUTDOOR GEAR SWAP TO BENEFIT THE
MANTI-LA SAL AVALANCHE CENTER ON SATURDAY, APRIL 2ND. GEAR CHECK WILL BE AT 8 AM, SALE STARTS
AT 10 AM. IT WILL BE HELD AT UP
THE CREEK CAMPGROUND, 210E. 300S.
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.
General Conditions:
Well March has kicked in this last week giving us storm totals of
close to 3 feet since last Sunday.
About a foot of new snow on Friday night has left the local roads a
mess, and travel above 8,500’ on the Geyser Pass road was impossible due to
drifting-the road crew should be out tomorrow, but for now you are forced to
park low on the road, with decent access to the Trans-La Sal Trailhead. Trail breaking conditions were might tough,
so recruit your strongest friends.
South faces have already been hammered by the sun and are heavy and/or
crusty. Truly sheltered north
facing slopes are providing some deep, albeit slow powder turns, so wax your
skis and find some steep and safe slopes to make good turns. 4WD and chains are recommended to make
it on the road today.
Current Conditions: (click location for latest data)
Geyser
Pass Trailhead (9,600’): 56”
at the SNOTEL, it is 19 degrees at the TH at 6:00 am. No new snow in the last 24 hours, 11” in the last 48 hours.
Pre-Laurel
Peak (11,700’): still trying to fix it!
Gold Basin and South Mountain:
100” of settled snow on the ground.
Mountain Weather: (At 10,500’)
Today:
Partly cloudy, with
a high near 36. West southwest wind between 10 and 15 mph.
Tonight: Partly cloudy, with a low around 24. Breezy, with a west
southwest wind between 15 and 25 mph.
Monday: Mostly cloudy, with a high near 42. Windy, with a west southwest
wind between 25 and 35 mph.
Avalanche Conditions:
The La Sal mountains have
been hammered with close to 3 feet of snow in the last week, and it hasn’t been
light and fluffy. No matter how you
put it, this is a huge load that is sitting on top of a faceted and weak old
snow surface from a week ago, and deep and dangerous avalanches are going to be
triggered easily. Yesterday I felt
as though I was constantly looking over my shoulder and at my feet to see how
big the shooting cracks were on slopes around 30 degrees. We were able to trigger 1 avalanche
intentionally on a 35 degree NNW facing slope at 11,000’. This slide had close to a 3-foot crown
failing on the old snow surface and was about 50 feet wide running for quite a
way through some thick trees. This
avalanche is indicative of what is going on out there in the mountains-as some
folks might say the pucker factor is quite high. Although yesterdays calm and warm weather has mellowed
things out a bit, this large loads are still going to be cranky and reactive so
pay attention today and watch your slope angles and the slopes above you. The other concern is the warming trend,
which may bring about significant avalanche activity on S-SW aspects as the day
heats up. The bottom line
for today is an avalanche danger of MODERATE, rising to CONSIDERABLE on all slopes steeper than 35 degrees. Remember that human triggered
avalanches are quite possible today and natural avalanches may be possible as
the mercury rises.