Good Snow, Stable Snowpack but a few ‘Glide Cracks’ and ‘Glide Avalanches’
The forecast is for warming this weekend then maybe a bit of snow through the middle of the week!
Glide cracks and glide avalanches: the snowpack is very stable at the moment, but there are some glide cracks out there that could turn into glide avalanches (see my blog for photos of current examples getoffpiste.com). These glide cracks are mostly on south’ish slopes except for a couple on north slopes like the Lavachet in Tignes. one glide crack there turned into a small glide avalanche last week (again see my blog for current photos). They aren’t all that dangerous since it is most improbable that you will set one into motion by triggering it, BUT I wouldn’t have a pic-nic on one or under one because these glide cracks can turn into glide avalanches… and some have already gone as I mentioned! We often call these cracks ‘creepers’ which is technically wrong since ‘gliding’ is when the snowpack slides along the ground surface and ‘creeping’ is the process of the snow layers settling and moving downslope inside the snowpack.
Tip of the week
Watch out for these glide cracks over the weekend and this coming week as things get warm. The warming will lead to instability and some big nasty glide avalanches!!
Have Fun and Be Safe!
Henry
