Northern San Juan

You can trigger a large and dangerous avalanche if you find a shallow spot in the slab on a steep slope. The most dangerous slopes face northwest to north through northeast near and above treeline. You may not experience any signs of instability, such as cracking or collapsing, before triggering an avalanche. As such, previous tracks on a slope do not mean it won't slide.

Keep it simple by choosing planar slopes and avoiding likely trigger points, like the thinner margins of a slab, convex rollovers, and shallowly buried rocks. Also, watch out for what's above you, because it's possible you could trigger an avalanche from below or from a distance.