Outdoor enthusiasts headed into Colorado’s backcountry this weekend should watch out for dangerous avalanche conditions throughout the mountains, state officials said in an alert.
Colorado Avalanche Information Center officials issued a special avalanche advisory on Friday because for increased avalanche danger across the state after recent storms dropped feet of fresh snow, forming “thick cohesive slabs above an unusually shallow and week snowpack.”
“You can easily trigger a slide on slopes with drifted snow. If you trigger a slide, it is likely to step down into deeper, weak layers and be large enough to bury a person. You can trigger these avalanches from flat areas below steep slopes,” state officials said in an alert.
Conditions will remain dangerous through the weekend, and people need to plane carefully and be conservative when selecting terrain, according to the CAIC. Slopes sheltered from the wind or less than 30 degrees and not connected to steeper terrain are a safer bet.
Updated backcountry forecasts are available online at avalanche.state.co.us.