Aspen

You might trigger an avalanche where west and southwest winds drift new snow into slabs more than about a foot thick. The most likely place to find these deeper, more sensitive drifts will be on northerly and easterly-facing terrain above treeline, but consider any slope with more than a foot of freshly wind-drifted snow suspect, at any elevation.

We do not expect Saturday's new snow loads to overload old buried weak layers and cause natural avalanches, but you might trigger one. Buried weak layers lurk two to four feet deep on northerly-facing terrain at upper elevations. Here, avoid steep slopes with a thinner-than-average snowpack, where it is easier to trigger a large and destructive avalanche.