Although relatively uncommon in comparison to the higher peaks of New York’s Adirondacks, New Hampshire’s White Mountains, Maine’s Katahdin and Quebec’s Gaspe, Vermont’s steeper mountainsides are susceptible to life-threatening avalanches. During this past week alone, several reports of small slab and sluff avalanches have come in. Recent winds have loaded steep gulleys and even forested steeps with significant quantities of snow, and some of this snow is sitting (like a cohesive slab) on a layer of crust formed from the Dec. 26/27 rain event… In general, many steeper slopes are prone to sluffing – a situation when the snow beneath your skis turns into a powdery soup and starts to flow down the mountain. Both slab and sluff avalanches can be extremely dangerous, so if you are venturing into very steep terrain, make sure you are traveling with some serious avalanche awareness, as well as the equipment needed in case you or someone you are with gets into trouble.
Here’s some footage of a relatively small sluff triggered by a skier on Vermont’s Mount Mansfield.
mt mansfield avalanche from JonnySki on Vimeo.
