Persistent Slabs
- Alta quota
- Limite del bosco
- Sotto il limite del bosco
- Probabilità
- Possible
- Dimensione
- 1–2
After a 2-week dry spell, the mountains finally saw a bit of weather yesterday. Although this was more blow than snow with strong easterly winds, yet only an inch or so of snowfall. With quieter weather slated today before the next system pushes in tonight/tomorrow, we will be on the lookout for any wind slabs formed over the past 24-hours as well as older slabs sitting on weak snow.
Wind loading from yesterday has likely created new shallow wind slabs and/or added more snow onto those previously loaded slopes with weak snow 1-2' deep. Most concerning is the latter, those slopes with older slabs as they could create a much larger avalanche than a small wind slab. Areas most suspect are the big open bowls in the Summit Lake area that have not yet avalanched this year.
Looking for recent avalanches, shooting cracks, and hollow feeling snow are good ways to identify areas that have been wind loaded. To avoid this issue, we can always stick to wind sheltered areas that do not have stiff snow.
(11/29/2024) Wind loaded snow on top of a weak layer that failed in a snow pit test earlier this week. Photo: John Sykes