Wind Slabs
- Alta quota
- Limite del bosco
- Sotto il limite del bosco
- Probabilità
- Likely
- Dimensione
- 3
Lofty Lake Peak (11,186') is about the best upper elevation wind site around, especially for southerly winds. Please ignore the temps and windchill, they're a bit wonky, instead focus on the wind speed, direction, and duration which illustrate recent wind loading trends in the wind-zone.
With no shortage of fresh snow available to blow around, recent winds have no problem whipping up fresh drifts reactive to our additional weight. Remember... there are several storms worth of wind drifted snow stacked up on leeward slopes in the wind zone and once triggered, todays avalanches are gonna pack a hefty punch. It doesn't mean you shouldn't ride... it does mean that rather than blindly center-punching a big objective with no beta, gather as much information as you can about the snowpack. Tweak small test slopes similar in aspect, elevation, and slope angle to the kinda terrain you plan on riding and see how they're reacting. In addition, have an exit plan in place in case things go sideways and discuss that with your crew before considering big terrain. Remember... you can have a blast on slopes protected by the wind and not even have to pull on the avalanche dragons tail today.