Grand Mesa

The most dangerous slopes are east and northeast-facing slopes above the treeline. Here, you can easily trigger a small avalanche in new, wind-drifted snow that could step down into deeper buried weak snow triggering a large and destructive avalanche. To reduce your chances of triggering one of these avalanches avoid traveling on or underneath steep northerly and easterly-facing slopes especially where you find wind-drifted snow. You can identify wind-drifted slopes by the smooth, rounded, often wave-like snow surface appearance and you may see cracks shooting in front of you in the snow as you travel near or across them.

On wind-sheltered slopes where you find more than around eight inches of new snow, you can trigger small loose avalanches. These avalanches will be small but could knock you over and take you for a dangerous ride if terrain traps such as a cliff or a river are below you. You can find safer travel options by sticking to wind-sheltered slopes with no terrain traps on the slope below you.