Southern San Juan

You can easily trigger avalanches in the fresh storm snow, especially in the La Plata mountains, where the greatest accumulations are expected. Gullies and below ridgelines on northerly facing slopes where winds have drifted snow will have thicker slabs of snow that can break deeper and wider. Avoid steep slopes where you find more than about eight inches of new or wind-drifted snow that cracks or collapses. The avalanche you trigger in the surface snow could step down to weak layers buried deeper in the snowpack. You can trigger an avalanche from a long distance away or below. Thin spots in the snowpack near exposed rocks or where the slab thins along the edges of a slope are the places you could trigger a deadly avalanche. You can find safer travel on slopes sheltered from the wind and lower-elevation slopes without steeper terrain overhead.