Front Range

You can trigger an avalanche at upper elevations where you find drifted pillows of snow just below ridges, inside gullies, or behind convex rollovers. Cracking in the new snow is a sign to move to low-angle or wind-sheltered slopes. Easterly-facing slopes are the most likely place to trigger an avalanche, but take care anywhere you find more than about a foot of recently drifted snow.

At lower elevations and on sunny slopes, warm temperatures and mostly clear skies will make the surface snow wet and cause it to sluff off steep slopes. Rollerballs and pinwheels in the surface snow are a sign it's getting wet.