Vail & Summit County

You can trigger an avalanche on west through north to south-facing slopes at all elevations. Spots where the snowpack is thinner, like around exposed rocks, bushes, or grass, are where you could trigger the large slides. You may be able to trigger a small slide near the surface in recently wind-drifted snow as well. If you do, it can easily break into the deeply buried weak layers near the ground and cause a wide and far-running avalanche. Look for and avoid smooth, bulbous pillows of snow below ridgelines, in cross-loaded gullies, and downhill of convex rollovers. If you can't determine how deep the snowpack is, you can always make safer choices to stick to slopes less than about 30 degrees with no steep slopes above.