Sawatch

Up to 20 inches of recent storm snow sits over very weak collapsible layers. Northerly-facing sheltered slopes are where you are most likely to trigger an avalanche that breaks beneath the storm snow. These avalanches could grow larger as they step down to more deeply buried layers.Although harder to trigger, the largest avalanches and most dangerous conditions are large east-facing slopes directly below ridgetop. Recent wind drifting built fresh slabs. You can trigger large and wide avalanches that break near the ground.