Front Range

Winds back to the west and increase on Saturday. You can easily trigger avalanches where you find more than about 10 inches of recently drifted snow. Small slides in drifted snow can step down to buried weak layers and grow larger. The most dangerous slopes face northwest through north to southeast.

With easterly winds during the storm and westerly winds after, you can find drifted and cross-loaded pillows of snow on many upper elevation slopes. Look for and avoid lens-shaped pillows of snow on steep slopes below ridges, inside gullies, and behind convex rollovers. Cracking the snow and audible collapses are signs to avoid steep slopes. Seek out wind-sheltered slopes, away from big, steep slopes that are less than about 30 degrees, as a safer option.