Southern San Juan

Recent snowfall has settled into a thick, cohesive slab of snow on top of a weak, problematic snowpack on slopes that face west through north to east at all elevations. You can trigger an avalanche large enough to bury or injure you on slopes where you find slabs of snow around 1 to 2 feet deep. Place lots of room between you and any suspect terrain as you can trigger a slide from below a slope or from a distance, and avoid traveling above gullies with steeper slopes overhead. Increasing winds Thursday may build fresh drifts on easterly-facing slopes that could overload buried weak layers increasing the chance to trigger a larger, more destructive slide. You may not observe signs of unstable snow such as cracking or collapsing, so steer around areas that look smooth and rounded, and treat all steep, wind-drifted slopes suspect.