Persistent Slabs
- Hochgebirge
- Waldgrenze
- Unterhalb der Waldgrenze
- Wahrscheinlichkeit
- Possible
- Größe
- 1–2
Recent Avalanches: The last recorded human triggered avalanche was on November 22 on Tenderfoot Ridge.
A weak layer of facets is buried up to 1.5’ deep, most likely under wind slabs above 2,500’. The bad news is that this setup will make them easier to trigger for longer than expected. A dangerous behavior with wind slabs is that they may appear stable until someone has committed to riding the slope then they trigger an avalanche from above. The good news is that this problem can be easier to manage by steering clear of steep wind loaded slopes.
Wind slabs tend to form below ridgelines, on convex “rollovers” and in loaded gullies. Traveling on a wind slab may feel like the snow is harder or “hollow” sounding, and you may experience shooting cracks.
It is becoming less likely that a human could trigger an avalanche on a layer of buried surface hoar up to 3’ deep. This is due to the fact that there have been no reported avalanches on these layers in 3 weeks and many field tests are showing them to be gaining strength. These layers could become a bigger problem in the future if they get stressed by a new load of snow.
