Southern San Juan

Many slopes are free from avalanche danger. The few places where you could trigger an avalanche are on steep wind-drifted slopes at upper elevations. You can avoid this problem by identifying smooth, rounded pillows or wind-stiffened snow below ridges on open slopes. Any avalanche you trigger will likely be small. Still, even a small slide could be dangerous if it piles debris into a creek bed or pushes you off a cliff.

At lower elevations, the surface slab continues to deteriorate. You can trigger a small loose avalanche on steep convex features and near rocky outcroppings where the surface snow has lost cohesion.