Persistent Slabs
- Hochgebirge
- Waldgrenze
- Unterhalb der Waldgrenze
- Wahrscheinlichkeit
- Possible
- Größe
- 2
An old, sled-triggered persistent slab avalanche from earlier in the weekend that broke on a shallow, shrubby, steep slope near Heber Mountain at 9,800' -- Thanks for sharing Nate. Check out more from his travels here.
The snowpack is getting comfortable in its own skin and the likelihood of triggering a deep, dangerous avalanche is decreasing... and that's good news. But I gotta remind myself, the pack is in it's teenage years and still a bit unpredictable. Put together the right elements like steep, rocky terrain with a shallow, thin snowpack, tease it a little bit and now what seemed relatively predictable, is coming unglued.
It not like rolling craps in Vegas, maybe a bit more like Minesweeper, play it long enough and eventually we're bound to stumble onto the booby trap. Remember, all we need to do is find a thin portion of the snowpack, like around a rock or bush, collapse the weak layer (whumpf), and now we're staring down the barrel of a dangerous avalanche. Don't forget, today's persistent slab avalanches are tricky, unmanageable slides. Instead of trying to outsmart the avalanche, avoidance is the go-to tool. So, I'm steering clear of the problem until it no longer exists or is buried deep enough and on the road to healing.
Ted's been looking at structure around 10,000' near the East Fork where he's noted a shallow, weak snowpack with less than three feet of total snow depth.
