Gunnison

A very large natural avalanche sometime early Monday before sunrise highlights a dangerous snowpack across the Elk Mountains. The most dangerous slopes are where the wind is blowing additional snow onto slopes with buried weak layers, mostly facing north, northeast, and east. You can easily trigger an avalanche in the freshly wind-drifted snow, but the greater danger is one of these smaller avalanches stepping down to those deeper weak layers growing into a destructive and deadly avalanche. Avoid traveling on or under steep, wind-loaded slopes facing northwest through north to east to reduce your chances of being caught in a likely unsurvivable avalanche.