Northern San Juan

Cohesive slabs of snow resting on top of a very weak snowpack increases your chances to trigger a large avalanche. On Saturday, northerly winds drifted recent snowfall onto easterly and southerly-facing slopes, and tipped the snowpack scale producing several natural avalanches above treeline. Additionally, riders continue to trigger large slides daily on wind-loaded slopes steeper than about 35 degrees. Triggering an avalanche from a shallow part of the slope can expand into deeper areas, and could step to the ground once moving downhill taking the entire snowpack with it. Be very aware of the terrain around you, and give yourself an extra buffer if traveling below steeper slopes or large avalanche paths.

Day over day warming may produce loose wet slides on southerly-facing slopes. These small, generally harmless slides should stay confined to near surface snow that gets wet and sluffs above a crust. Those slides that travel long distances downhill have the potential to trigger a larger, more dangerous dry snow avalanche that breaks near the ground.