Gunnison

The snowpack is unseasonably deep and strong, and it's a great time to travel in the mountains.  Avalanche hazards are small and are generally only a threat in high consequence terrain.  Stay alert for isolated pockets of wind drifted snow and shallow sluffs if you are riding above cliffs, in long-running gullies, or other terrain traps.   

The mountains picked up a couple of inches of fluffy snow under calm winds from yesterday's system.  That will make for a nice surface refresh without changing the hazard.  The avalanche danger has been pleasantly pegged at LOW for the past 10 days.  The last avalanche that was large enough to bury someone was explosively triggered on January 10th.  With clear weather today and decent riding quality, it's a great time to ride in complex avalanche terrain that you would normally reserve for springtime.   It's open season right now: time to cash in on an excess of patience from last winter that carried into the first few months of this season. 

Low danger ain't no danger.  We've observed a handful of small soft slabs and loose snow avalanches in the past week.  If you are chasing objectives in bigger or more extreme terrain, remember that even small avalanches can have deadly consequences.   Keep that at the forefront of your decision-making and travel habits.  All of the recent slab activity has been in high elevation terrain that saw a bit of wind drifting (see video A, video B), and will be most common on northerly facing terrain where layers under recent drifts are weaker.  Sluffs can entrain more snow on wind-sheltered, shady terrain where the upper snowpack is weak and faceted below the recent snow.  Although these are relatively small and isolated problems that fit under "normal caution,"  you need to manage for them if you are riding or climbing in terrain where you can't afford to get swept off your feet.

The danger trend looks to remain the same into the weekend, and the weather outlook is fantastic for getting out into the high country. If tomorrow's low-pressure system brings stronger winds than we are forecasting for, we could see an uptick in small wind slab formation at high elevations.  Continue to check back with the avalanche forecast and observations page before heading out.