Call these numbers for the latest. The conditions are bringing serious avalanche concerns. I'm expecting a lot of activity. During the last ten years, winter travel in the backcountry by recreationists has grown dramatically. While the adventure is exhilarating, Williams says that most people know little about the potential path of danger.
Some slopes never slide until something happens to trigger it.
Here's what's happened to set up ideal avalanche conditions across much of the Rockies, from Colorado to Montana. Early storms in October covered some areas with a thin layer of snow. But then the weather turned warm and that snow decomposed to a consistency of sugar, which created a weak base layer. When the big storms finally arrived in mid December, large amounts of snow piled up on top of the sugar snow. Because the consistency of the two layers is so different, a strong bond could not be established.