Steamboat & Flat Tops

You can trigger an avalanche large enough to bury you on steep westerly through easterly-facing slopes where new snow overloads buried weak layers near the ground. Look for signs of unstable snow like shooting cracks or sounds of collapsing. If you trigger a small avalanche, it could step down into a weak, buried layer three feet deep in the snowpack. Stick to slopes less than about 30 degrees that are not connected to larger, steeper slopes. Areas that have had less snow so far this year, such as North Routt County or the shallower part of the Flat Tops are where you are most likely to trigger deeply breaking avalanches.