Wind Slabs
- Alpin
- Limite forestière
- Sous la limite forestière
- Probabilité
- Possible
- Taille
- 1–1.5
If you're headed to upper elevations on Monday, you'll still want to use caution on steep lee slopes directly below ridgelines. You're most likely to find stiffer wind-drifted snow on NW-SE aspects. These are the same aspects that are less likely to have a thin surface crust. With wind slabs becoming less likely and more stubborn to trigger, it's less about seeing red flag signs of instability, like shooting cracks and recent avalanches, and understanding the consequences of triggering an avalanche in the wrong piece of terrain. If you're traveling above cliff bands or in rocky chutes, understand that in these specific terrain pieces, even a small avalanche could cause injury or worse. Steer around smooth pillow-like drifts and slopes directly below recently formed cornices to minimize your chances of triggering an avalanche.
With southerly winds ticking up a notch Monday, keep an eye out for blowing snow and the potential for thin new shallow wind slabs on the same lee aspects.
(12/29/2021)
Wind textured surfaces show signs of recent wind transport. Use clues like this to anticipate and steer around steep wind-loaded slopes on the ridgelines below.
Photo: Sam Luthy