Vail & Summit County

Westerly winds loaded easterly-facing slopes and a few natural avalanches ran like a cluster of avalanches spotted on Chicago Ridge. Wind-drifted slopes will be the easiest place to trigger an avalanche. Once in motion, there's a chance one might break deeper on a variety of weak layers buried two to four feet deep. Even in wind-sheltered terrain, you might trigger an avalanche two to three feet deep on west through north to southeast-facing terrain. The snowpack is complicated, and the simplest solution is to stick to slopes less than about 30 degrees.