Northern San Juan

A Special Avalanche Advisory is in effect for the La Garita Mountains. One to two feet of heavy dense snow fell on Friday night into Sunday morning and dangerous avalanche conditions continue through Sunday. Careful and conservative terrain choices are essential to stay safe.

You can easily trigger a large avalanche where you find more than about eight inches of new or wind-drifted snow. The snow came in warm and wet and should bond well with the surface below, but you should check that this is the case. In areas where the wind has drifted snow, you should identify and avoid rounded pillows of snow that may feel hollow beneath you. If you experience cracking or collapsing in the surface snow, move to slopes less than about 35 degrees with no overhead hazard.

With a significant new load, triggering an avalanche at the surface could result in it stepping down to deeper buried weak layers. This will be even more likely in areas where the snowpack is thinner. On slopes with a known buried weak layer, you can find safer travel on slopes less than about 30 degrees.

Pay attention to cloud cover and temperature on Saturday. If the sun breaks through the clouds and you start to see small sluffs and roller balls, avoid steep southerly slopes.