Every year in Alaska as
fall fades into winter recreaters and explorers prepare their equipment
for another season of winter fun. High in the hills some something else
is being prepared though. As the snow depth increases from centimeters
to meters a deadly crystalline structure is forming. These “weak layers”
that often develop in the snow pack can lay dormant for weeks or even months
waiting for something or some one to tip the critical balance between strength
and strain in the snow pack. All too often the trigger is a backcountry
traveler and year after year the death toll in Alaska rises.
How can a soft fluffy slope of new snow shatter like a
pane of glass, and turn in to a river a frozen ice crystals? Before
we can investigate how slab avalanches are triggered we must first gain
an understanding of how snow acts as a material and how slab avalanches
form.
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