Persistent Slabs
- Hochgebirge
- Waldgrenze
- Unterhalb der Waldgrenze
- Wahrscheinlichkeit
- Possible
- Größe
- 1–2
On Sunday two WAC forecasters remotely triggered a large avalanche in the Blues near Lookout Mountain. You can read more here. The culprit was weak surface hoar that was buried beneath a foot of snow that fell on Sunday. As they traveled along a road, the steep slope below them avalanched. They had identified a buried weak layer earlier in the day while digging a snow pit and also observed shooting cracks from their snowmobiles on small test slopes.
You may feel the snowpack collapsing and observe shooting cracks as "red flag" indicators of instability. Unfortunately, this is not always the case, and you must dig down a foot or two to look for strong snow over weak snow. It would be really tempting to drop into a steep terrain feature in search of cold powder snow this weekend, especially as solar aspects warm up and the snow quality decreases. Doing so could be dangerous, especially if the runout involves rocks, trees, or terrain traps.