Persistent Slabs
- Alta montaña
- Límite del bosque
- Bajo el límite del bosque
- Probabilidad
- Possible
- Tamaño
- 1–2
Recent Avalanches: Five days ago, on Friday, there was an avalanche fatality near Lake George, which is outside our forecast areas. It has been 1 week since any avalanche was reported within our zones with the exception of small loose avalanches. Many natural and human-triggered avalanches occurred in the few days following the most recent storm that were 1 to 2' deep. One of these buried and injured a person on Max's Mountain in Girdwood.
The avalanche problem we are dealing with has become stubborn to trigger because the weak snow has adjusted to the load in many places. This is a tricky problem because we know the recipe for an avalanche exists, with very weak snow sitting below a stiff slab that is 1 to 2' deep. We also know that just 5 days ago a human-triggered avalanche buried and killed a person just outside this forecast area near Lake George. Warming later in the day may increase the chances of a person triggering this type of avalanche, especially below 2,500' in places like Placer and Skookum.
The way we have been managing this problem is by choosing slopes that are clear of rocks, trees and gullies at the bottom in case we find a trigger spot and get surprised. There can be many tracks on a slope before someone finds that spot and triggers the avalanche. We are also traveling one at a time in steep terrain and watching each other closely from carefully selected safe spots. We are also completing a safety check at the parking lot to ensure our transceivers are operating normally in both send and receive mode.
Loose Snow Avalanches: Dry Loose avalanches could be triggered by a person on steep slopes with dry snow. Consider the consequences below in case you get caught up in the sluff.
(3/30/2026)
Weak structure in a handpit at the bottom of Main Bowl. This structure looked terrible, but there were thousands of tracks nearby with no avalanches. Tricky problem to predict.
Photo: Andrew Schauer