Wind Slabs
- Hochgebirge
- Waldgrenze
- Unterhalb der Waldgrenze
- Wahrscheinlichkeit
- Possible
- Größe
- 1
With a few inches of loose snow lying around, strong northerly winds on Wednesday put wind drifted snow back on the problem type menu. Recent slabs of wind drifted snow may be hard or soft and though their distribution may be fairly widespread, they are most likely "pockety" or not wide and well connected. Look for them on the leeward sides of ridge crests and terrain features such as gully walls, sub-ridges, and behind or beneath rock outcrops. Hard slabs may be difficult to identify in the mix of textured surfaces but suspect areas that sound like a drum or that feel hollow underneath.
Wind drifted snow problems tend to settle out after a few days, but the possibility for triggering a hard slab in the high country may linger. Here is some information on hard slabs that I lifted from Drew Hardesty's Wasatch forecast yesterday:
- Hard slabs often allow one or two riders to traverse over them before the third (fourth? fifth?) rider collapses the thinner part of the teardrop, shattering it like a pane of glass
- They commonly fracture after you're well on to the slab
- They have a lot of spatial variability: welded in and stable here...or initially stubborn only to fracture there
- Cracking and collapsing may not be present
- Hard slabs may pull back onto lower angle slopes