Vail & Summit County

You can trigger an avalanche that breaks one to two feet deep on a layer of weak, collapsible snow. The most likely place to trigger one of these avalanches is on a northerly or east-facing slope at the mid elevations. In areas with a snowpack less than 6 feet deep, any smaller avalanche you trigger can grow into a larger avalanche as it breaks on deeper, older layers.

It's tricky to assess snowpack stability right now. You'll need to probe carefully to understand the snowpack depth and also ensure that weak layers in the upper snowpack are not present. If this sounds complicated, you can always stick to lower-angle slopes and slopes that have thick crusts buried underneath the new snow.