Northern San Juan

You can trigger avalanches in recently drifted snow, but the main concern remains finding a shallow spot in the slab on a steep slope. Avalanches that break on buried weak layers will break in the middle or bottom of the snowpack. The most dangerous slopes face the north half of the compass.

Choose low-angle planar slopes and avoid likely trigger points, like the thinner margins of a slab, convex rollovers, and shallow buried rocks.

The strong March sun will start to warm the snow on sunny slopes. Watch for Loose avalanches in the new snow during the heat of the day. Avoid traveling on or under suspect, sunny, rocky slopes.