Northern San Juan

Recent snow and strong winds increase your chances of triggering an avalanche where you find firm slabs of snow resting above weak old snow. You could trigger an avalanche large enough to bury you in deeper wind-drifted areas near and above treeline where the slab of new snow is thicker and more cohesive. Avoid traveling near common trigger points, such as convex rollovers, rocky outcrops, or the edges of slopes where the margins of a slab are the thinnest and easiest to trigger. Give yourself a wide buffer from suspect slopes because you could trigger an avalanche from a distance or below. Tracks on a slope do not indicate stable conditions and you may not experience obvious signs of instability before triggering an avalanche.