Moab

Enough snow exists in the high country to make human triggered avalanches possible. You are most likely to encounter an avalanche on steep, wind drifted, upper elevation, northerly facing slopes. The overall snowpack remains very shallow and triggered avalanches would likely be small but they could potentially knock you down and send you crashing into rocks. If you find yourself in the high country, avoid steep, wind drifted slopes and look for signs of instability such as recent small avalanches and cracking in the snow surface. Coverage remains very thin and the threat of injury from rocks, stumps, and deadfall is real. Stick to grassy, lower angle slopes.

The 14th Annual Utah Snow and Avalanche Workshop is virtual again this year and will be held Nov 5th (professional session) and Nov 9th, 10th, 11th evenings from 6-9pm. More info and speaker lineup on our Events page HERE.

Check all the upcoming education HERE.

October has been a wet month in the La Sal Mountains with the most recent storm on the 26th delivering another 10" of dense, heavy, wet snow accompanied by strong southwesterly winds. 7" of snow at 1.0" of Snow Water Equivalent (SWE) fell the night of October 18, and on October 12, the SNOTEL site in Gold Basin (10,000') reported 13" at 1.6" (SWE). On upper elevation, northerly aspects, there was already a pre-existing 6"-12" of old and wind drifted snow. All of this snow is a mixed blessing. Although it has delivered much needed moisture to the region, the stage has been set for a layer of weak, sugary, faceted snow to form at the base of the snowpack on northerly facing slopes above about 11,000'. To learn more about this process, go here. Snow cover is generally too thin for travel on skis or snowmobile and your biggest hazard right now is a myriad of bone and machine breaking obstacles on the ground. Nevertheless, as snow accumulates it's time to start tuning up your avalanche awareness.

Use these weather links to stay abreast of current conditions:

BRAND NEW! Gold Basin SNOTEL site (10,000')

La Sal Mountain SNOTEL site (9600') near the Geyser Pass Trailhead.

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

NWS Weather Forecast

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