Southern San Juan

You can trigger an avalanche where storm snows have thickened into cohesive slabs on slopes facing west though north to southeast. You can trigger avalanches from the bottom of slopes, or from a distance, so give yourself a wide margin around steep terrain and use cautious route finding. Slopes with fresh cornice growth or smooth lenses of snow offer visual clues to wind-drifted areas where you are more likely to trigger an avalanche. You may not experience cracking or collapsing as a warning sign of unstable snow, so treat all steep wind-loaded slopes as suspect. Stick to more wind-sheltered areas and slopes less than about thirty five degrees with no steep slopes above you for safer options.