The Abajo range has picked up about five inches of new snow in the last 48 hours. The storm exits our area this morning. The new snow will not be enough to stress buried persistent weak layers to their breaking point. Southerly winds have been strong throughout the duration of the storm. Winds will shift to the NW today. These shifting winds will whip up fresh slabs of wind drifted snow on all aspects in the middle and upper elevation bands. Backcountry travelers will need to be on the lookout for and avoid any areas of recently wind drifted snow. Fresh wind drifts will appear fat, round, and pillowy.

Two feet of heavy wet snow fell in the Abajos over New Year's weekend. Prior to this storm, the Abajo range had a shallow, weak snowpack with facets near the ground. The heavy snow buried this weak snowpack structure and produced a round of natural avalanche activity. Last week I got eyes on some big avalanches that occurred on East aspects. These slides took out the entire season snowpack running on a hard crust at the ground. Stability tests continue to produce failures on this same weak layer. Slopes that face NW-N-NE-E will be the most dangerous, but the overall snowpack in the Abajos remains weak and precarious. Stick to low angle slopes and meadows if you are out recreating in the mountains.

For more details see this report from my tour on Thursday 1/5.

This short video clip shows the full track of an avalanche that overran the switchbacks on the summer road up North Creek. The debris piled up in the creek bed at the bottom. This road is a popular route for snowmobiles.

The avalanche in the video failed on facets on top of a hard crust at the ground. The weak layer of facets is represented by the red line in this photo. It is easy to see how an avalanche failing on this layer would take out the entire season's snowpack, resulting in a deep and deadly avalanche.