Northern San Juan

You can trigger a large and dangerous avalanche. The most dangerous slopes for triggering a deadly avalanche are at upper elevations, where winds drift snow and form more cohesive and connected slabs. Avoid trigger points such as shallow buried rocks or small trees, convexities, and the edges of slopes where the slab is thinnest. If you find a shallow spot and trigger a slide, it could break wider and deeper than expected. Tracks on a slope do not represent stability, and you may not observe any obvious signs of instability, such as cracking or collapsing, before triggering an avalanche.

Warm temperatures increase the potential for wet avalanches at all elevations. If you begin sinking into rapidly warming snow, move to a shady slope. Watch for overhead hazards beneath steep rocky terrain, as wet avalanches can often originate from rocks and gain mass as they move downhill.

On February 20 and 22, backcountry snowboarders were caught and killed in avalanches in separate incidents. One west of the town of Silverton on a terrain feature locally known as The Nose. The other was near the summit of Berthoud Pass in a terrain feature locally known as The Fingers. In both fatal accidents, the avalanches broke several feet deep and spread wide across multiple terrain features. You can read the preliminary accident reports here and here.