Southern San Juan

You could trigger an avalanche on steep slopes where cohesive slabs of snow sit above weaker snow. The most dangerous slopes face northwest through north to northeast, especially ones with a highly variable snowpack depth or numerous potential trigger points like small trees, rocks, or cliffs. You can reduce your risk of triggering an avalanche by choosing terrain less steep than about 35 degrees.

On February 20 and 22, backcountry snowboarders were caught and killed in avalanches in separate incidents. One west of the town of Silverton on a terrain feature locally known as The Nose. The other was near the summit of Berthoud Pass in a terrain feature locally known as The Fingers. In both fatal accidents, the avalanches broke several feet deep and spread wide across multiple terrain features. You can read the preliminary accident reports here and here.