Border Pennine Alps

Wind slabs are to be evaluated with care and prudence. Restraint is advisable on this first sunny day after a long period of poor weather.

Wind slabs are to be evaluated with care and prudence. Restraint is advisable on this first sunny day after a long period of poor weather.

The wind was moderate to strong at times. In the last few days sometimes deep wind slabs formed in gullies and bowls and behind abrupt changes in the terrain. They can be released even by a single winter sport participant above approximately 2200 m. Dry avalanches can additionally in some places be released in near-surface layers in particular at transitions from a shallow to a deep snowpack. In the regions with a lot of snow medium-sized and, in isolated cases, large dry snow slides and avalanches are possible.

In some cases the wind slabs have bonded still only poorly with each other and the old snowpack. Over a wide area new snow and wind slabs are lying on soft layers. Individual weak layers exist in the snowpack on wind-loaded slopes. In particular at elevated altitudes snow depths vary greatly, depending on the infuence of the wind.