i think you're looking for a safe, but fun route to ski. good start.
you need to really educate yourself. start with this book:
Bruce Temper's "staying alive in avalanche terrain" is kinda the bible.
you'll soon learn that snowpack, and avalanches, are incredibly complicated with hundreds of variables combining into infinite conditions that may or may not be hazardous.
i'm no avi expert, and from the east coast- so i have much less overall avi experience- but some.
my buddy triggered a small slide on a steep, tree strewn pitch at mad river glen once that carried me (above him- it fractured above as a small soft slab) into trees below.

definitely a first for me on the east coast.
fat skis reducing slides? probably marginally at best. if a slope is unstable enough to go- a skier weighing 130-200lbs is enough stress to push it over in most cases. i would take anything 'bout fat skis with a grain of salt.
trees can act as two things:
anchors
points of concentrated stress
like rocks, they act as anchors for snowpack. however, avi's are often triggered between trees/rock outcroppings (and can often "jump" these anchor areas when a slab goes) furthermore, trees are a variable; the snow in and around trees can be significantly different than in exposed areas due to exposure to sun, acting as wind-fences (and thus, concentrating snow/loading the area)
if you look at pics of avi's, you'll see that these points of anchor/stress are kinda the connect-the-dots of crowns/fracture lines. with this in mind, being uphill of trees/outcroppings is generally a safer zone than below.
it doesn't take a lot for a slope to go- and even a small slab in a confined area can really really fuck you up.
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