Moab

With a widespread weak layer under this week's new snow, conditions remain dangerous on northerly facing slopes as well as ones facing east and southeast. Avalanches up to 2-3 feet deep are likely in these areas and the avalanche danger is CONSIDERABLE. With so much new snow, human triggered avalanches remain possible on other aspects where the danger is MODERATE although the new snow is stabilizing quickly.

Don't assume that riding and skiing well below treeline is safer. In fact it is the opposite situation because the weak layer that will produce avalanches is much more widespread near and below treeline while it's existence above treeline is more pockety.

Road Conditions: The road is plowed snowpacked and the surface soft with shallow ruts near the trailhead. AWD and good tires are recommended.

Grooming: LUNA Matt groomed into Gold Basin on Friday. Follow LUNA on Instagram @luna_moab.

Tim Mathews sent in this photo of natural avalanche activity that occurred during the height of the storm on Wednesday. You can read his observation here.

Widespread cracking on any shaded slope yesterday while riding into Dark Canyon was a major red flag.

6:00 a.m. weather data:

24 Hour Snow 0" 72 Hour Snow 0" Base Depth at Gold Basin 54" Wind N 10-20 Temp 7F

Clear skies overnight allowed temperatures to drop into the single digits and teens F which is quite a bit warmer than yesterday morning. Winds from the north should ease today, and they may blow from the south later today but will remain light. Stong sunshine will allow temperatures to quickly warm and will be near 30 degrees F today. This week will have very warm weather followed by an "active" weather pattern by the end of the week, but it doesn't look very promising for snowfall just yet.

NWS Weather Forecast for the La Sal Mountains

Gold Basin SNOTEL site (10,000')

Storm Totals in Gold Basin

Wind Station on Pre Laurel Peak (11,700')

Snowpack

Snow on slopes receiving direct sunshine yesterday became damp and should have an ice crust on top this morning. More northerly facing slopes still have great powder that has settled and gained density.

The main issue in the snowpack is a layer of weak, faceted snow that formed on the snow surface during the long period of dry weather. On shaded and wind-sheltered slopes, this layer is widespread and produced cracking and very small avalanches (photo below) on nearly every small road cut and road bank we touched yesterday while riding into Dark Canyon to the east of Gold Basin. Other folks observed collapsing and cracking this week. In fact, this layer caused us to turn around as we were riding along a summer road to Geyser Pass yesterday because we would have had to cross under a small steep slope that surely would have avalanched. This layer has a more pockety distribution above treeline where it existed in some places but not others prior to this week's snowfall.

Southwest winds drifted the new snow this week and formed many wind slabs above treeline. Many of these are glued into place; however, others may be resting on this faceted layer and remain unstable. The challenge is that it's nearly impossible to know the difference. It's basically a coin toss which ones could be triggered and which wind slabs remain unstable.

Many small slopes like this one either cracked or produced tiny avalanches yesterday.

Who's up for some free avalanche training? Get a refresher, become better prepared for an upcoming avalanche class, or just boost your skills. Go to https://learn.kbyg.org/ and scroll down to Step 2 for a series of interactive online avalanche courses produced by the UAC.

This forecast is from the U.S.D.A. Forest Service, which is solely responsible for its content. This forecast describes general avalanche conditions and local variations always occur.