Avalanche Weekly Summary - November 28, 2024
Northern Mountains
From Sunday through Wednesday, the Northern Mountains received 12 to 32 inches of snow. Summit County saw an uncommon event, with 18 inches falling in 24 hours. Natural and human-triggered avalanches, including remotely triggered slides, were reported during and after the storm. Avalanches up to size D2.5 released, predominantly on north and east-facing aspects, broke on weak layers near the ground.
Central Mountains
Nineteen to 42 inches of snow fell across the Central Mountains, with the biggest accumulations in the western parts, such as the West Elk, Ruby, and Elk Mountains. Big avalanches started breaking on weak snow layers formed earlier in November on Tuesday. Some of the slides were D3 in size. Persistant Slab avalanches were triggered both remotely and sympathetically.
Southern Mountains
The San Juan Mountains received 12 to 20 inches of snow (1 to 3.5 inches SWE), favoring the western and southern San Juan areas. Many natural avalanches ran during the storm. The heavy snow load is causing avalanches to break on weak layers near the ground. Remotely triggered avalanches and collapsing were widely reported, indicating a reactive Persistent Slab avalanche problem.
Heading into the Weekend
A Special Avalanche Advisory is in effect through Sunday at 4:30 pm, alerting backcountry travelers to the heightened safety risk this weekend with the dangerous combination of nice weather, fresh snow, and CONSIDERABLE (3 of 5) avalanche danger across much of the state. You can easily trigger dangerous avalanches large enough to injure or kill you, and you can do so from a distance or from below. These hazards are difficult to manage and require conservative decisions and wide safety margins. Lower-angle southerly-facing slopes are the best options to help avoid being caught in an avalanche.
