Wind Slabs
- Alpine
- Treeline
- Below treeline
- Likelihood
- Possible
- Size
- 2
The image above illustrates fat, rounded pieces of snow, cross-loaded onto terrain features like steep gully walls. As you travel today, look for and avoid terrain with these characteristics where even a small like can stack up surprisingly deep piles of snow.
There's a solid looking storm on the doorstep and the days of green light riding are rapidly coming to an end. As a matter of fact, we should expect changing avalanche conditions by late in the day, as strong winds whip up a fresh round of drifts. While not particularly alarming to begin with, continued winds form more connected drifts, and by days end, these stiff pieces of snow become more reactive to our additional weight and begin to breaking deeper and wider than we might expect. So, the key to riding safely is... be flexible with your travels plans and adjust objectives if you're starting to see or feel obvious clues to unstable snow like shooting cracks, sudden collapses, or the biggest clue to avalanches.... and of course that's avalanches!