Avalanches are going to be a problem now in many western States especially in the Sierras

 If you are not familiar with what Avalanche conditions look like (and even then they vary a lot). Most people expect avalanches to be wind blown peaks of snow ready to slide. But, they don't always look like this at all. One of the reasons I stopped skiing above tree line on Mt. Shasta is I didn't recognize the avalanche conditions because they were all under the snow so I couldn't see the problem first hand.

This was in the early 1980s and it was a sunny spring day and it was so hot that I took off my shirt and stripped to the waist and only had on likely a baseball cap (if that) and good sunglasses so I wouldn't go snow blind from the sun reflecting off the snow.

All of a sudden one acre of snow or more started moving down towards the trees. I had cross country skis and so I struggled to stay up on top of the one acre of moving snow so I wouldn't die. But, as the acre of snow moved down the mountain faster and faster I then got scared because I might be slammed into a tree at high speed and die that way instead. Luckily, for me, the snow hit the trees and exploded and this slowed down the acre of snow enough so when it finally stopped I was only chest deep in snow. Now, remember I was without a shirt on because of the heat of the sun.

So, I struggled until I could get my tips of my skis above the snow once again.

However, that was the last day I ever skied on Mt. Shasta above tree line because I just didn't want to die like that or have that experience ever again. (tree line just means where trees stop growing because of altitude and other weather conditions) which on Mt. Shasta is usually around 8000 feet. However, often a very few trees also grow in some places up to 10,000 feet too but they are the exception and a rarity completely and usually are stunted because of this high altitude and other factors.

The point of this story is that you cannot always recognize Avalanche conditions by sight. So, be very careful on skis, snowboards and snowshoes now because too much snow has fallen too fast and it might be much more dangerous than you think right now because of too much snow coming and then unusual winds on top of this. So, avalanche conditions might not be visible to anyone at all until they let loose caused by literally anything including your skis or snowboard or other noises or conditions going past.