Persistent Slabs
- Alpin
- Limite forestière
- Sous la limite forestière
- Probabilité
- Possible
- Taille
- 1–2
You are most likely to find trouble on shallow, wind-affected, rocky slopes with a variable snowpack depth. Unfortunately, many slopes around Hatcher Pass currently match this description. This means you may encounter this problem in surprising places, and you could trigger slides from shallow spots on an otherwise well-covered slope.
Look for and avoid steep, wind-affected, rocky slopes, or places where you suspect the snowpack depth to be variable. Instead, seek slopes that appear to have uniformly deep snow coverage. You can further hedge your bets by digging down to assess for weak snow near the ground, selecting slopes with clean runouts, and skiing or riding slopes one at a time.
Hatcher Pass still has an overall shallow snowpack. Even a small avalanche could have heightened consequences, dragging you into or over rocks and into terrain traps such as drainages.
(1/19/2026) Ski tracks near this slide suggest that skies may have triggered it. Note the shallow snowpack and drifts near the ridge. Photo: Nate skains