The Bottom Line for today will be an Avalanche Danger of Considerable on steep wind loaded and cross-loaded aspects at and above tree line. The rest of southeast Utah will be at a "touchy" Moderate, where human triggered avalanches on most aspects and elevations are still possible.

Enjoy the new snow, but do so in safe locations. The next couple of days is not the time to raise the bar too high.

San Juan County was out in force yesterday, the road to every trail head is clear. Thank you !

There is 26" of snow at the Geyser Pass trail head and Gold Basin has 40" (100 cm) on the ground. Down in the Abajo Mountains, there is 31"of snow on the ground at Camp Jackson. It is already 35 degrees down at Camp Jackson, 19 degrees on Abajo Peak.

Ridge top winds have been very strong for the past 24 hours out of the N-NNW in the La Sal's and out of the WNW on Abajo Peak. Averages range between 18-39 mph, strong and consistent enough to transport snow onto leeward sides of upper elevation slopes and ridges.

There is decent skiing conditions on wind and sun protected slopes in southeast Utah. Strong solar gain yesterday created sun crusts on south-west aspects, while the wind made for dense snow up high.

On Thursday's tour, whoomps and shooting cracks seemed to consistently propagate from our skin track, some of which that traveled over 300 yards. Although avalanche activity was limited to isolated terrain, today will be very dangerous for human triggered avalanches. The snow pack contains a lot of energy (sudden planar, sudden collapse shear) and the new snow from the past week sits on a very mature faceted layer in many areas (poor structure). The strength of the snow pack in terms of stability tests are in the moderate to hard range, which gives a false sense of stability. With lots of stored energy, an additional stress (READ: YOU) is all it will take to tip the balance.

Look HERE to see some of the results we saw during yesterday's tour.

@ 10,000' in Gold Basin, La Sal Mountains, Utah Today: Mostly sunny, with a high near 40. Calm wind becoming south southwest around 5 mph. Tonight: A 50 percent chance of snow. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 21. South wind around 5 mph becoming west. New snow accumulation of less than one inch possible. Friday: A 50 percent chance of snow. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 30. Northwest wind between 5 and 10 mph. New snow accumulation of less than one inch possible. Friday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 13. Northwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm. Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 33. Calm wind becoming northeast around 5 mph.