Vail & Summit County

There are lots of places you can trigger a big avalanche. An intense winter storm dropped 3 feet or more of snow in the past week. Westerly winds drifted this snow into slabs on many aspects and elevations, but upper-elevation easterly-facing slopes are the most dangerous. Avalanches breaking below the storm snow will be large enough to bury and kill you. A growing number of recent slides propagated around terrain features or stepped down to deeper weak layers, and became nearly unsurvivable. Multiple people can ride a slope before it slides and you may not get any warning signs beforehand. Make conservative terrain choices and avoid traveling on or below slopes steeper than about 30 degrees.