Gunnison

The most dangerous slopes are wind-drifted terrain features where recent snow drifted into cohesive slabs. There are several weaker layers of snow underneath these drifted slabs. Avalanches can break shallowly, up to a foot deep, or deeper, on layers buried in mid to late January.

Safer travel options exist by sticking to wind-sheltered slopes at lower elevations and avoiding likely shallow points in the snowpack such as a rock outcrop or a convex rollover on otherwise planar slopes.