Avalanche forecast

Skyline

Utah Avalanche Center
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Avalanche danger

  • Alpine
  • Treeline
  • Below treeline
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Highlights

The avalanche danger on the Manti Skyline is rated MODERATE.

The danger is increasing today and may reach CONSIDERABLE.

Wind drifted snow getting deposited on top of older weak snow is the big concern.

Avoid any fresh drifts on steep upper elevation slopes especially that face north through east.

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    2

    I was a bit surprised to see such a large avalanche from a small amount of snow and some wind. It goes to show how much snow wind can transport. For today, my thinking is that there is not as much loose snow available for transport as there was on Sunday so in theory, we shouldn't see as much wind loading. That said, I'm not screwing around on or below steep slopes where the wind has been depositing snow. No doubt, there will be some snow transport and some new loading. The areas where the snow gets deposited are suspect.

Recent Activity

I stumbled onto a very large avalanche that released naturally on Sunday. It was in Pleasant Creek and broke 2 to 4 feet deep, 450 feet wide and ran 1100 feet vertical. It broke to the ground in weak sugary faceted snow. The debris stopped about 100 feet above the road. It was a result of heavy wind loading. What amazes me is that we received only 4 inches of new snow on Friday and the wind drifting on Sunday produced this large avalanche. There are two takeaways from this.

  1. Never underestimate how much snow can get transported by wind.
  2. This is a very clear demonstration of how weak our current snowpack structure is.

MORE DETAILS HERE

Snow and Weather

Current Conditions: Recent wind has really decreased the quality of the riding conditions. You need to hunt around to find pockets of good carvable snow. It's quite inconsistent out there and today's wind won't help. Temperatures got close to 40˚F in the high country yesterday and only cooled to around 30 overnight. Wind has been fairly strong along the highest peaks overnight.

Mountain Weather: We'll see breezy conditions this morning with clouds that look like they'll dissipate a bit as the day goes on. Temperatures may not increase all that much during the day. The weather looks quite mild over the next few days. I'm not seeing any decent storms until at least Christmas.

Additional Info

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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.

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