Steamboat & Flat Tops

You can trigger small slides in recently drifted snow where you find about 6 inches of new snow. Slides could break deeper, or step down to a buried layer of soft, weak snow about 1 to 2 feet deep and grow larger.

Steer around places where the wind drifted snow onto steep, leeward slopes, like below ridges and cliff bands. You're most likely to find buried weak layers on upper elevation, northerly and easterly-facing slopes. Look out for drifts on south-facing slopes too. Cracking in the surface snow is a sign of unstable snow. You can find safer travel on lower-elevation slopes, sheltered from the wind.

Be careful on very steep slopes below treeline, where you may find deep, unconsolidated snow above terrain traps. Here, a loose avalanche could knock you over.