As the hiking season approaches, now is the time to start getting ready for your first hike of the season. In the evening shadows, he can't see the sleek shape of a mountain lion crouched behind a juniper just to his right. The cat tenses her muscles, and for a moment it seems as if she is going to pounce. An avalanche is an uncontrolled movement of snow. It can happen to a whole mountainside or only to the snow that fills a small side of a narrow gully.
Avalanches occur in any area with significant snowfall and steep slopes.