Deep Persistent Slabs
- Alta montaña
- Límite del bosque
- Bajo el límite del bosque
- Probabilidad
- Unlikely
- Tamaño
- 3
A very large natural avalanche occurred in the neighboring West North Zone on what we suspect was the deep persistent layer early Wednesday morning. Snow conditions in the West Central Zone are similar. The avalanche occurred during the final period of warm, wet weather, just as temperatures began cooling. Subsequently, a surface freeze Wednesday night in combination with slowing of moving water in the snowpack may have aided us with making it more difficult to trigger an avalanche on this layer. The suspect layer is 3-4 feet deep on upper elevation northerly aspects.
This isn’t really a “manageable” avalanche problem that can be figured out. You are either in the terrain where one of the large, unsurvivable avalanches might occur, or you are not. If you choose to travel in these areas your a simply accepting a slightly higher risk of triggering or being exposed to this problem.
(3/23/2022) A very large natural avalanche which occurred early Wednesday morning in the West North Zone. Possibly up to a 5' crown. Photo: Kris Stemmler