Wet Slabs
- Alta quota
- Limite del bosco
- Sotto il limite del bosco
- Probabilità
- Very Likely
- Dimensione
- 1–2
It’s going to rain, and probably eventually rain to above the tops of most of the peaks in the Olympics. It’s hard to say exactly what kind or how big the slides might be. But, it’s safe to say there will be avalanches.
Where the upper snowpack is dry and layered, you’ll likely encounter wet slab avalanches. These notoriously hard to predict slides aren’t something to mess around with. You could also see wet loose and cornice avalanches. No matter the flavor, heavy wet snow could be rolling downhill.
There’s not a lot you can do to assess the stability of these problems. Best to just give them space. Stay off of steep slopes throughout the zone and limit or fully avoid traveling where avalanches can run and stop. Fortunately, most of these slides should be smaller. However, big alpine bowls could produce a few rogue big slides.
(1/7/2025)
Example: Wet avalanches may descend from above down to openings in the trees like this.
Photo: Dallas Glass