Gunnison

You can trigger avalanches on many slopes. The most dangerous and largest avalanches will happen on open, wind-drifted slopes that sit directly below ridgetop and face an easterly direction. Snow on Wednesday night with strong winds will only make this problem worse. Most avalanches will break in wind-drifted snow, but some avalanches could break on more deeply buried layers.

In sheltered areas, you can trigger avalanches in soft snow that break a couple a few feet deep on a weak layer that was buried in early February. This is less likely in the deeper areas of the Ragged and West Elk Mountains, but keep this in mind as you select slopes to travel on.