Gunnison

You can easily trigger a dangerous and destructive avalanche that breaks much wider and runs further than you might expect. Most avalanches will break on weak layers near the ground. Wind-drifted slopes are most dangerous because of the extra load stressing the deeply buried weak layers. You might trigger an avalanche that breaks only in the freshly-drifted snow on a south or southwest-facing slope that was bare ground in late November. On most other slopes an avalanche in motion might break on weak layers near the ground. Lower-angled terrain, without steeper slopes above, offers the safest option at the moment.