Northern San Juan

On most steep slopes, slabs of cohesive snow sit above older, weaker snow and where you can trigger an avalanche large enough to bury or injure you. Triggering a smaller avalanche near the surface could provoke a larger slide that breaks deeper into weak snow layers near the ground and broader across slopes than you might expect. You are more likely to impact buried weak snow and trigger a slide near slab margins or around rocky outcrops where the snowpack is shallower. You can find safer riding by carefully assessing south and southwesterly slopes for the presence of a buried weak layer or by riding slopes less than and not connected to terrain steeper than about 30 degrees.