Wind Slabs
- Alta quota
- Limite del bosco
- Sotto il limite del bosco
- Probabilità
- Likely
- Dimensione
- 1–2
Wind speeds will increase on Friday. The likelihood and size of this problem will increase in the second half of the day as precipitation ramps up. Some terrain features will collect more blowing snow than others. Not all slopes are the same and it is important to use your evaluation skills to monitor how deep slabs are. As slabs become deeper, avalanches can become larger. Utilize small test slopes to monitor depth of wind slabs and look for signs of unstable snow such as shooting cracks. Recent avalanches are also a great indicator that triggering avalanches can happen.
Keep an eye on blowing snow and wind slab development in areas of dead forests and clearings in areas you typically think of as below treeline.
Prior to this storm cycle, observers found surface hoar in a few places near treeline; wind slabs building over surface hoar will have the ability to propagate wider and run farther than normal.
Archive Photo (Elliott Reed)
Example of shooting cracks in wind drifted snow.