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. Make conservative terrain choices and avoid traveling on or below slopes steeper than about 30 degrees.