Bulletin d’avalanche

You can trigger a large avalanche on slopes where you find firm pillows of wind-drifted snow. You can trigger these pillows from below and at a distance. You are unlikely to get any warning signs like cracking or collapsing. Multiple people could ride a slope before you find a weaker area of the slope and trigger a slide. You can find safer travel on low-angled slopes and in sheltered areas.

For visual impact, here's a montage of the last week's large avalanches from around the state.

On February 20 and 22, backcountry snowboarders were caught and killed in avalanches in separate incidents. One west of the town of Silverton on a terrain feature locally known as The Nose. The other was near the summit of Berthoud Pass in a terrain feature locally known as The Fingers. In both fatal accidents, the avalanches broke several feet deep and spread wide across multiple terrain features. You can read the preliminary accident reports here andhere.