The First Annual Avalanche Awareness Week is December 2-7 We have a week full of fun and educational events planned. Check out the schedule here.

The annual free Know Before You Go avalanche awareness talk will be held at the Grand County Library on Thursday, Dec 5 at 6:00 p.m. Hope to see you there!

It was a wild Thanksgiving week in the Abajos with lots of snow and wind. A storm on Tuesday and a two-part storm over Thanksgiving brought 3'-4' to the mountains and coverage is the best I have seen for this time of year. Strong winds from all directions have taken a bit of a toll leaving some exposed slopes blasted down to the grass while leaving others remarkably intact. Soft, settled powder can still be found however in many locations.

In our travels yesterday we saw evidence of cracking and slab failure that had occurred during the storm but we saw no actual avalanches, and instabilities within the storm snow had settled out. We noted the presence of wind drifts on steep slopes that should still be avoided, but overall we found a mostly strong snowpack devoid of reactive weak layers. At 10.000' we measured 62" of snow. Travis Nauman, on the other hand, sent in this observation where he noted the presence of reactive weak layers on NE aspect around 9000' which is certainly a cause for concern. We currently have very limited data and until we gather more, a slope by slope analysis will need to conducted before venturing on to steep, northerly facing terrain.

NWS Weather Forecast.