Exploring winter canvases in the backcountry... can be exhilarating... it can also be dangerous. Learn essential avalanche safety skills and get local knowledge before you go.
Let’s start by exploring the magic of snow sintering and how it affects the stability of an ever-changing snowpack.
Snowfall blankets the ground and older layers of snow, throughout the season, forming different levels of consistency.
Airborne “stellar dendrites” settle on the surface. Where the grains shed their prongs forming rounds.
If there is a significant temperature gradient these rounds can become faceted.
A faceted layer is a weak layer. The combination of a weak faceted layer underneath a strong sintered layer is a perfect recipe for a slab avalanche. Faceted snow is “usually or often or generally or some other modifier” weak, since it is not “always” the case.This weak point when triggered by the weight of a skier can cause failure in the snowpack and result in a slab avalanche.
Barring any extreme temperature gradient events, these rounds form strong bonds in the process of sintering.
Sintered snow “sets up” into a cohesive, well-bonded snowpack.
And that’s the first step in understanding how snow sintering can affect the stability of a snowpack.
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Special thanks to contributing subject matter experts.
