I was down in the Abajos yesterday investigating a round of avalanche activity that occurred during this week's storm cycle. Things are a bit more tenuous down there and activity has been impressive. Up here in the La Sals, things were active last week, but not on the scale. Conditions are unusual for this time of year. With continued stormy weather and cold temperatures, we've only seen but one narrow window for riding big lines this month, and no one I know is currently considering large alpine objectives. Forecaster Dave Garcia and company were up in Gold Basin yesterday and they reported active wind loading, poorly bonded new snow, and fat looking drifted slopes from earlier in the week. Pro observer Travis Nauman was up in the north group where he observed more avalanche activity from mid week, some triggered by cornice fall. Unstable slabs of wind drifted snow remain the primary concern, and you are most likely to find them on northerly aspects. Storm slab instabilities from last week have largely settled out but we're getting some reports of collapsing, particularly at lower elevations. The bottom line is that it's not green light conditions out there anywhere, and a high likelihood remains for human triggered avalanches on wind drifted slopes in the alpine. That said, turning and riding conditions are great and you don't need steep terrain to enjoy them!

Check out Dave's video on assessing recent snow instabilities.