Grand Mesa

Special Avalanche Advisory

A Special Avalanche Advisory is in effect for Colorado’s high country through Sunday, June 9. Several large and destructive wet avalanches were reported this week. More large wet avalanches are expected over the next few days.

Change your travel plans to avoid steep slopes if surface crusts become unsupportable and you sink into wet, unconsolidated snow or hear collapsing sounds.

Current Conditions

Clear skies at night are resulting in a refreeze of the snow surface and a small window of early-morning safe travel conditions. Once these surface crusts melt, and you start to sink into the snowpack, you can trigger avalanches. Start early and end early to reduce your risk of avalanches. Over the next few days (Saturday through Monday), we may see cloud cover at night, preventing surface crusts from forming and closing the door on our already-narrowing safe travel window.

Avalanche and Snowpack Discussion

Temperatures at 12,000 feet have not dropped below the freezing mark since the beginning of June. Some slopes are handling this onslaught of heat well, and water is moving through the snowpack and draining. Other slopes are still transitioning to a snowpack that can drain water without pooling or saturating snow grains. We will continue to see avalanches on these slopes that have not established good drainage.

The past few days (June 6 and 7) were two of the hottest days of the year so far. Although Saturday and Sunday (June 8 and 9) will be cooler with more cloud cover, don't expect the snowpack to recover quickly, especially with above-freezing temperatures overnight, and shorter periods of clear skies at night.

It is hard to pinpoint a specific aspect and elevation where the most dangerous slopes are. East-facing slopes above treeline seem to be the most active, but we have seen avalanches on a variety of mostly above-treeline slopes. It is easier to describe the most dangerous slopes by certain slope characteristics than a precise aspect and elevation. Characteristics of more dangerous slopes are- very steep slopes (steeper than 40 degrees), slopes with a lot of exposed rock, and slopes with a shallow snowpack.

Avalanche observations we have received mostly fit these mentioned slope characteristics. Several large Wet Loose avalanches gouged to the ground starting from rocky areas like this one on Mount Hope. This avalanche near Aspen broke on a slope with a thin and shallow, melting snowpack. There was also a shallow Wet Slab avalanche on an easterly slope near Mount Arkansas and some in the Indian Peaks.

Large, overhanging cornices are also a concern. If they fall onto the slope below, a larger avalanche can result as the weight of the fallen cornice gauges deeply into the snowpack. These cornices are also a threat if you are walking on ridgelines, as they can break much further back than you expect, especially during this current stretch of above-normal temperatures.

The snowpack and avalanche conditions are not as straightforward as we would like for early June. Fortunately, it is easy to see and feel worsening conditions while you are in the backcountry. You need supportable crusts to travel right now. If you are punching through into the snowpack, avoid steep slopes where this is happening.

Weather

You can get current weather forecasts by clicking the map on the CAIC's Weather Forecast page. Our computer Model Forecasts update four times daily and will run through the summer. If you are going into the Colorado high country, use our Weather Stations page to check current conditions.

We will update this avalanche information as conditions change. Click the map to get the latest conditions. Please keep sending us your field reports. We rely on your information to stay current on avalanche conditions across the state. There have been fatal avalanche accidents every month of the year in Colorado, so don't let your guard down.