Northern San Juan

Spring sunshine and warm temperatures are forming surface crusts and reducing the likelihood of triggering avalanches on many sunny slopes. Still, you could trigger a slab avalanche where the snowpack is cold and dry on steep, shady slopes in the alpine.

Avoid steep, rocky slopes with shallow snowpacks and lots of trigger points, and instead seek out lower-angled or planar slopes. You can also travel on sunny slopes with supportive crusts early in the day, but head for the shade if you start to sink in deeply to wet, mushy snow.