The small pocket of snow in the image above, triggered near Wolf Creek Pass Tuesday, broke into weak snow near the ground, indicating that in the right place and in the right terrain, you could still release a piece of snow that breaks to deeper buried weak layers. While remaining relatively quiet for the past few weeks, additional loading from recent winds may help to bring dormant weak layers back to life. Remember- "persistent weak layers" in the snowpack are a headache because they remain problem children for long periods of time. And all we need to do is find one weakness, maybe around a bush or rock that we can't see buried underneath the snow, collapse the pack, and now we're getting worked by a large piece of moving of snow. The usual suspect terrain comes to mind- steep, rocky slopes with a shallow snowpack, outlying terrain with a thin, weak snowpack, and slopes that already avalanched earlier this year. So the way I'm avoiding this scenario is by simply avoiding the terrain where this setup exists.... mid and upper elevation, north facing slopes that harbor weak, early season snow near the ground.

Steep, rocky, with a thin snowpack... complex terrain like in the image above is the kind of place where you could trigger a slide that breaks to weak snow near the ground.