Steamboat & Flat Tops

You can trigger an avalanche in wind-drifted snow on northerly and east-facing slopes. Fresh snow may disguise the characteristic rounded shape of drifts. You can find the drifted snow below corniced ridgelines, along gully walls, or around terrain features. If you feel firm, hollow snow that cracks or collapses, you should head to lower-angled or wind-sheltered slopes. The size of an avalanche is likely to remain small, but even a tiny slide early season could take you for a nasty ride through shallowly buried rocks.