High clouds will dominate the forecast area today bringing a slight chance of snow. The biggest affect will be limiting daytime heating and solar gain on south and west aspects.

I believe that human factors will be the biggest concern on Sunday when it comes to decision making on where and when and how to travel through avalanche terrain. The natural avalanche cycle and the last real snow/wind event is a week in the past. Touring parties are pushing deeper into the backcountry which is great yet remember to make careful evaluation of slopes for persistent weak layers. Our neighbors in the Northern San Juans are still producing numerous avalanches, both human triggered and by explosives on these persistent weak layers.

Evaluate terrain to avoid and/or trigger points that may hold higher risk. Make these decisions as a TEAM!

After a much needed dose of water this past weekend, the skies are clear and the valleys are warming across southeast Utah. Down in the Abajos, the Camp Jackson SNOTEL received 2.5" of water in the past seven days, bringing the base up to 34" while still being 20% below average in snow water equivalent (SWE).

In the La Sal Mountains, Gold Basin received just over 18" (41 cm) of snow during the last storm event where the snow stake registers 48" (120 cm). The Geyser Pass Winter TH has 34" of snow on the ground. The La Sal Mountains are 10% above normal for SWE.

San Juan County has been busy plowing the roads and parking lots for this weekend. Thank you San Juan County! LUNA volunteers has packed out the entire Nordic trail system into Gold Basin and over Geyser Pass including the Lasaloppet loops.

Snow quality in the backcountry is pretty decent currently, holding cold supportable snow conditions on north and east aspects. South and west aspects started to get a bit heavy on Thursday and will start to form sun crusts of varying strengths the next couple of days.