Wind Slabs
- Alta quota
- Limite del bosco
- Sotto il limite del bosco
- Probabilità
- Likely
- Dimensione
- 3
I don't think the Notch Mountain avy is a complete outlier, but you definitely need to go hunting in order to get in trouble. Look closely here... the avy failed on weak snow near this cliff band... a likely trigger point. And while not widespread, steep, rocky, wind loaded slopes, like this alpine terrain remain suspect.
Good news-
In general our snowpack is fat and happy in its own skin.
Bad news-
Recent storms are stacking up tremendous amounts of snow, water, and wind and even the strongest snowpacks will eventually reveal a weakness somewhere in their layering.
Flake news-
Storm snow along with strong winds will continue loading leeward slopes, especially those in the wind zone. While most of today's fresh drifting issues are straight-forward and easy to avoid (look for and steer clear of fat, rounded pieces of snow, especially if they sound hollow like a drum) I bet there's piece of snow out there that'll break deeper and wider than you and I might expect. Steep, rocky, upper elevation, wind drifted slopes facing the north half of the compass still feel suspect to me. Lose the wind and you lose the problem... there's plenty of great, wind sheltered riding out there on lower angle slopes, especially those with no overhead hazard.