Southern San Juan

You can trigger an avalanche in steep terrain anywhere you find about ten inches or more of new or drifted snow. Snowfall and southwest winds will create worsening avalanche conditions during the day Tuesday. Avoid slopes with smooth, drifted pillows or fresh cornice growth, and retreat to more wind-sheltered terrain if you encounter stiff surface textures or cracking in the surface snow.

Triggering an avalanche that breaks into deeper weak layers becomes more difficult with each passing day, but if you do, the consequences remain serious. Choose to travel in consistently deep areas where the snowpack is more than five feet thick. Avoid thin areas and slopes where the depth varies around exposed rocks. You can avoid avalanches by sticking to slopes less than about thirty degrees without steep terrain above.