Persistent Slabs
- Alta quota
- Limite del bosco
- Sotto il limite del bosco
- Probabilità
- Possible
- Dimensione
- 2
We've found buried layers of sugary snow at all elevations and on slopes facing every direction. In areas where the snow is shallow, < about 3 feet deep, the basal layers of the snowpack are very loose and sugary. If you get off your sled or skis you sink all the way to the ground and it's pretty easy to get the sled stuck if you sink and spin your track into the bottomless sugary snow. This set up is not good, and conditions will become worse this week as heavy snow and drifting overload slopes plagued by the widespread persistent weak layer.
- Red Flags indicating a persistent weak layer instability will include audible collapses or whumpfs and shooting cracks, but sometimes no red flags are apparent, and you have to dig down into the snow to find the sugary weak layer.
- Slab avalanches failing on a buried persistent weak layer could be remotely triggered from a distance, and hopefully not from below.