Wind Slabs
- Hochgebirge
- Waldgrenze
- Unterhalb der Waldgrenze
- Wahrscheinlichkeit
- Likely
- Größe
- 2
Very strong winds from the past 48 hrs have wreaked havoc throughout northern Utah. These winds and 2-5 inches of new snow have created soft and hard slabs of wind-drifted snow scattered around the compass.
Be on the lookout for any slope loaded by the wind. This includes slopes across the mid-elevations as well. Terrain features like mid-slope break overs and cross-loaded ridges or gullies should be on everyone's mind. I expect to find wind slabs well off the ridgelines today and in odd locations that we might not "normally" see.
Any wind slab avalanche that you trigger has the potential to step down into deeper weak layers within the snowpack, creating a more dangerous avalanche (see the persistent weak layer description below).