Gunnison

Very dangerous avalanche conditions exist in the Ragged and Ruby Mountains. You can easily trigger a large and unsurvivable avalanche, they can be triggered from the bottom of a slope or from hundreds of feet away, and some of these avalanches may fail naturally as snow and wind continue to overload slopes on the lee side of ridgelines. Tracks on a slope or slopes that avalanched earlier this year do not mean that slope is safe. There is a good chance you will not see any signs of instability such as shooting cracks or collapses in the snowpack before you trigger a very large and deadly avalanche. If you are traveling in the backcountry on Wednesday extremely conservative decision-making and overly cautious route-finding are necessary to make it home safe.