Southern San Juan

A Special Avalanche Advisory is in effect from Friday evening through Sunday for the San Juan Mountains. A winter storm will dramatically change conditions, making it easy for backcountry travelers to trigger dangerous avalanches this weekend.

You can trigger avalanches where you find more than around 8 inches of snow that has formed into a cohesive slab on slopes steeper than about 35 degrees. Watch for cracking in the snow as an indication that a slab has developed. If you experience this sign of unstable snow, avoid steep slopes.

Once the recent snow forms a slab over what was a very weak snowpack, avalanches could be triggered from a distance or from below.