Abajos

We will not be issuing daily forecasts with danger ratings this season. We simply do not have enough information for this level of detail. We will be keeping an eye on the snowpack and will post a detatiled summary of conditions on Saturday mornings. Mid-week updates will be provided as weather conditions dictate.

Join us for the 1st Annual UAC Moab/LUNA Winter Kickoff Party on Saturday, Dec 10 at the MARC. The event will be from 7-9 PM. Get your tickets here.

Join the Utah Avalanche Center and the Division of Outdoor Recreation to celebrate the Fourth Annual Avalanche Awareness Week, from December 4 - December 11. Click HERE to view a full list of events throughout the state.

A Pacific storm system has moved into our area and snowfall began early this morning with about 3"-5" falling across the range. Another 2"-4" are possible today. Strong SW winds over the past 24 hours will back off into the 15-20 mph range. A chance of snow showers will linger into Tuesday. Overnight temps will crater into the single digits, and will barely climb into the lower teens tomorrow. The system moves on by Tuesday night bringing sunny skies and Wednesday and cold temps through the week. The weekend storm system has vaporised inot a cut of low that is diving far south.

NWS Forecast for the Abajo Mountains

Snow totals and temps at Buckboard Flat (8924')

Snow totals and temps at Camp Jackson (8858')

Snowpack Summary and General Conditions

New and drifitng snow will cause an increase in the avalanche danger today. Early season snow has become weak and sugary, while more recent snow has formed a dense slab on top, particularly in wind drifted areas. This creates an ustable structure with strong snow over weak snow. Incremental loading from today's new and wind drifted snow palces additional stress on this poor snowpack structure. In most cases, snowcover is still a little too thin to access avalanche terrain, but all steep, wind drifted slopes that have enough snow to ride are suspect, and human triggered avalanches are possible in these areas.

Conditions remain thin though there is getting to be enough snow for tentative backcountry riding. Considerably more snow exists on the north side of the range with between 2'-3' of snow in favored areas up around North Creek Pass. South facing slopes are not blown clean but there is still plenty of grass sticking out.

For more on the current state of the snowpack, see the video below.

If you are getting out in the backcountry, we'd love to hear what you're seeing. Please submit observations here. You can also send an email to [email protected] or give me a call with anything noteworthy, especially avalanches! 801-647-8896

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.