Southern San Juan

Dangerous conditions exist, and you can trigger a large avalanche that breaks close to the ground. Avalanches can be started from a distance or below and may wrap around terrain features. Signs of unstable snow, like cracking or collapsing, may be absent before you trigger a large avalanche. Smooth rounded pillows of snow indicate areas where the wind has drifted snow. Triggering avalanches in these drifts below ridgelines and cornices could result in a much larger avalanche involving the whole season's snowpack. You can find safer riding by carefully assessing south and southwesterly slopes for the presence of a buried weak layer or by riding slopes less than and not connected to terrain steeper than about 30 degrees.