Southern San Juan

Older, weaker snow layers loom below thick slabs of cohesive snow on most slopes increasing the chance to trigger an avalanche large enough to bury, injure, or kill you. Triggering a smaller avalanche in the recent storm snow could provoke a larger slide that breaks wider than you might expect and into weak snow layers buried two to four feet deep. Heed the warning signs of unstable snow like cracking and audible collapses. You might trigger an avalanche from below a slope, or from a distance, so give yourself an extra wide buffer traveling around bigger terrain. Avoid all steep slopes unless you very carefully evaluate the snowpack and find an absence of buried weak snow layers.