Deep Persistent Slabs
- Alta quota
- Limite del bosco
- Sotto il limite del bosco
- Probabilità
- Unlikely
- Dimensione
- 2–3
Yesterday we investigated the large avalanche on John Mountain and found it to be old (likely released during the last big storm at the end of January), which is good news. A little bit of rain falling on the debris last week made it look crisp and new vs. old news. The last avalanche we are aware of in Summit Lake was on Butch Mountain, which released sometime last week, and was a slab likely triggered by cornice fall. There has only been 1" of snow in the Summit area in the last month. All of this information points to stabilizing conditions, yet we are still wary of this snowpack because of it's poor structure (weak layers under large slab). This is influencing our terrain choices and Andrew does a great job of describing this in his video. If a person were to find just the right spot to trigger one of these avalanches it could be huge. If you are getting into steeper terrain consider choosing slopes with benches and places with lower angles instead of big open slopes with sustained steep slope angle.
Glide Avalanches: Glide avalanches are still releasing occasionally and are large and powerful. Try not to get sucked into a route that leads underneath if possible and make a plan that avoids them completely as they can release anytime.