Up to 2' of snow has fallen in the mountains since Thursday, containing 3.0" of snow water equivalent (SWE). This is quite a dump and it's going to take a little time to settle out. In addition, strong easterly winds on Thursday and Friday created deep, unstable slabs of wind drifted snow. In our travels on Saturday, we found deep, and difficult to manage heavy dense snow. Several parties reported collapsing, a red flag sign of instability, and Chris Benson sent in this great, detailed observation where he also noted a weak, underlying snow structure. This load will be a good test for it all, but we need to let the dust settle so to speak before we bite off any large terrain. Human triggered avalanches 2' deep or more remain possible to likely, with an outside chance of an avalanche failing on weak, faceted snow near the ground. Avoiding avalanche terrain is still recommended, especially steep, wind loaded, northerly aspects. As the day heats up, the threat for loose wet avalanches will increase on sun exposed slopes, and you'll want to steer clear of them as they become wet and sloppy.

NWS forecast for the Abajo Mountains.

Snow totals and temps at Buckboard Flat (8924')

Snow totals and temps at Camp Jackson (8858')