Bulletin d’avalanche

You can trigger an avalanche on steep slopes where you find a layer of cohesive surface snow sitting above a weaker layer near the ground. The most dangerous slopes face north, northeast, and east, and are where early-season snow remained preserved prior to the most recent storms. You can identify these slopes by digging a few feet below the surface layer to see if weak, cohesionless snow sits beneath a more cohesive surface layer, the recipe for avalanches. Move to less-steep or more wind-sheltered slopes if you see cracking in the snow or hear collapses. Slopes less than about thirty degrees without steep terrain above provide safer options.