Wind Slabs
- Hochgebirge
- Waldgrenze
- Unterhalb der Waldgrenze
- Wahrscheinlichkeit
- Possible
- Größe
- 1–2
The main avalanche concerns lie within the new and windblown snow from Friday's storm. Although this is likely less reactive than it was yesterday, there are two main issues to key into as you travel today:
- The old snow surfaces were highly variable before Friday's storm. While this helps to reduce the likelihood of wide-propagating avalanches, it also makes it more challenging to assess. We know there are some slopes with weak, faceted snow buried 1 to 2' deep beneath the new snow, and those areas may remain reactive today. This was observed near Girdwood yesterday, and there are likely some areas around Seward with a similar setup. This will be very hard to identify as you travel, and may give misleading feedback. This will be most concerning in areas favored by the storm that received a foot or more of new snow.
- Northwesterly winds have been building a fresh round of reactive wind slabs, especially at and above treeline. These will be easier to identify by looking for relatively stiff snow sitting on top of softer snow.
The newer snow is slowly stabilizing, but careful assessment and terrain management will be the name of the game today. Signs like shooting cracks or collapses are clear indicators of unstable snow. You can mitigate some of the uncertainty mentioned above by avoiding consequential terrain with features like rocks, cliffs, trees, or depressions in avalanche runout zones. As always, if you want to avoid these problems entirely, you can simply use low-angle terrain.
Dry Loose Avalanches will be fast-moving and easy to trigger in steep terrain. These are unlikely to be big enough to bury a person, but they could still be a concern if they were to take you for a ride.