Moab & La Sal Mountain Winter Condition Report 1-7-18

Cheers from a new year from Zoe, Zach, Jeff, Chris, Sylvia, Ilona, Bjorn, and Marshall. We all wish you the very best for 2018.

We are open from 8 to 9 every day. Our shelves are stocked with the gear and clothing you need to play outside no matter what the conditions. See our inventory at shop.moabgeartrader.com.

Snow!

Hoorah! It snowed 4″ at Geyser Pass last night! There was only 2″ on the ground left from the snow before Christmas at the Geyser Pass weather station and it has probably melted and sublimated down to the ground in many other places. So expect 4″ on top of rocks or a little snow. 6″ ain’t enough to backcountry ski yet, but Nordic touring might be possible if you didn’t mind bumping a few rocks. The snow in the desert is holding strong too for those of you that need to slide around. The Geyser Pass Snotel site has recorded 1.1″ of precipitation for this water year. The median is 5.2 which puts us at 21%, up from 14% before the storm. This is the 2nd lowest year of the 37 on record. 1990 was the lowest at .4, so it could be worse.

Colorado received some much needed snow last night with the winner being Crested Butte at 11″, Vail – 9″, Aspen 8″, Telluride 7″,Steamboat 6″, Powderhorn 3″

Utah’s totals were: Alta/Snowbird 7″, Park City 2″, Snowbasin 1″, Solitude/Brighton 5″

Please visit the Moab Area Avalanche Advisory for our local avalanche advisory

Let us know what it is like out there. Submit a report.

Roads

Geyser Pass Road is un-plowed. Expect 4″ of fresh snow on top off packed snow and gravel surface. Watch the Moab Area Avalanche Advisory for updates.

Weather

Some good news to follow up all of the doom and gloom! A new storm system will begin affecting our area on Monday with a trace of precipitation. Tuesday night the main storm arrives with up to 12″ of snow forecast in the La Sals. Moab can expect a rain/snow mix starting Monday night. Hi temperatures are forecast at 50 degrees on Tuesday before the main storm arrives.

Salt Wash Anticline & the Henry Mountains

Water & Rivers

No discussion about a lack of snow wouldn’t be complete with out mentioning the runoff. The good news is that it although it is low, so far, the snowpack of the entire Colorado River Basin has been much lower in the past. While it is possible to make up for lost time, odds are we are going to have a below average water year. Currently the Colorado River has 56% of it’s normal SWE (Snow-Water equivalent) upstream of Lake Powell. Individual river averages:

Animas – 25%
Dolores – San Miguel – 28%
Gunnison – 38%
Price/San Rafael – 25%
Muddy/Fremont/Escalante – 14%
Roaring Fork 62%
San Juan 27%
Upper COloardo – 77%
Upper Green – 103%
Yampa/WHite – 65%

GEAR

Moab Gear Trader is Moab’s winter sports headquarters. We carry Black Diamond back country ski poles, skins, shovels, probes, and beacons. From Voile, we have skins, shovels, and probes. Brooks-Range Mountaineering avalanche & back country gear is always in stock as well as closeout backcountry skiing back packs from Arva. We are have a full selction of waxes and tuning supplies from Swix. Got questions? We love talking about gear and the places that it takes us. Stop by and tell us where you have been!