Steamboat & Flat Tops

Thick slabs of snow from early January's snowfall rest on weaker, collapsible layers. It is hard to affect these deeply buried weak layers and trigger an avalanche, but if you do, it will be large. The best way to reduce your risk of these hard-to-trigger avalanches is by avoiding big open slopes with lots of protruding rocks, aka trigger points, and sticking to slopes with an even, consistent snow depth.