Put your back country brains back on, plenty of new snow with unrelenting winds have increased the avalanche danger in theLa Sal and Abajo mountain ranges. In the past 72 hours, Camp Jackson SNOTEL in the Abajos have received 2.2" of water content with only 12" of new snow. The La Sal Mountains have received 1.4" of water and 9" of snow at the Geyser Pass Winter TH in the same time frame, while the Gold Basin Study Plot has received 14" of snow. There is 32" of snow at the trailhead while Gold Basin has 46" (115 cm).
Not only did it snow, the wind blew...hard. For the past 24 hours, the winds have been consistently blowing out of the south and southwest averaging between 15 and 40 mph, with gusts up to 62 mph.
These two red flag weather phenomena has increased the avalanche danger and made travel to the trailheads next to impossible. I expect that San Juan County will get the plows to the mountains once they have their primary and secondary roads in good order.
LUNA packed down the Gold Basin Road yesterday, I would wait for the second round of snow showers to blow through before they are able to stamp out some corduroy.
Observers yesterday noted slides on the north facing Exxon's Folly and Noriega's Face. These are really the only slide paths visible when visibility is compromised. Due to the near surface faceting and a long high pressure spell, I would expect avalanche activity to be widespread. Here is an observation from a tour on Sunday HEREhttp://utahavalanchecenter.org/observations/observation-168
