Wet Slabs
- Alta montaña
- Límite del bosque
- Bajo el límite del bosque
- Probabilidad
- Very Likely
- Tamaño
- 1.5–2.5
The best way to stay safe is to stay well away from and out from under slopes steeper than 30 degrees. Better yet, avoid going in the mountains. Even reaching trailheads will be difficult. Natural avalanches could be large and destructive. They may come from overhead in terrain that's out of view. Weather and travel conditions will make for a challenging and miserable day.
Rain and heavy snow will fall on a weak snowpack. The upper snowpack is very light and dry and will quickly become unstable with rain. You can find strong-over-weak layering 2 feet below the new/old interface. Small facets and surface hoar in the upper snowpack, could easily break under the load of the storm. Depending on how the storm progressess, wet avalanches may be smaller below treeline, though you're still likely to encounter them there.
(1/21/2022)
An example of wet slab avalanche from last season. Stevens Pass Mountian Resort, closed terrain.
Photo: Matt Primomo