Gunnison

About 2" to 5" of new snow has accumulated across the forecast area in the last 24 hours, with mostly light and variable winds. This new snow should bring your attention to a few small avalanche problems. On steep northerly facing slopes, you can expect loose dry avalanches or sluffs. On steep southerly facing slopes, the sun and warming temps may release small loose wet avalanches. Lastly, at upper elevations, you could encounter isolated soft slabs in the 5 to 8" range. Normal caution travel advice fits all three of these small and relatively manageable avalanche problems. This is an excellent day to be out in the mountains. Just remember, if you are riding in extreme terrain even a small avalanche can increase in size on big slopes, or push you into more hazardous terrain features. 

The recent new snow has not changed the overall avalanche danger rating. An open-season mindset continues. Your patience have paid off, by holding back during times of heightened avalanche danger, and stepping out during conditions like we have currently. We don't have a lot of new snow, but it sure should improve riding conditions for the weekend. Loose-dry and loose wet avalanches are relatively easy to manage when compared to all the other potential avalanche problems. If you have any questions on how to manage loose dry or loose wet avalanches, then it may not be the right time for you to step into big terrain. In that case, if you chose slope angles less than 35 degrees you can avoid any avalanche problems related to the new snow. 

Basal weak layers that were responsible for the extensive avalanche activity at the end of December, are expected to be dormant. The deep slab avalanche problem was dropped for the NW Mountains on Thursday, while the persistent slab avalanche problem was dropped in the SE Mountains today. It has been 3 weeks since the last natural avalanche released on basal weak layers and nearly 2 weeks since the last explosively triggered avalanche. The lack of snowfall in January has given the snowpack enough time to adjust that even if you find a trigger point, it is still unlikely to trigger an avalanche on those early season weak layers.

We are well settled into LOW avalanche danger at the moment. However, that doesn't mean you get to turn your brain off. There are small avalanche problems to manage with the new snow. While triggering a large to very large avalanche has become very unlikely. Very unlikely still leave room for those unpredictable 1% events. If you became that unlucky, don't be grouped up with all your buddies on some big avalanche slope. Instead, continue to make good decisions in the backcountry and plan your routes through avalanche terrain so that you can regroup in areas safe from those very unlikely events.