There have been numerous practitioners and researchers who have studied near misses and accidents in the snow and avalanche industry. Taking the time to understand these accidents and near misses is an opportunity to learn from others, and hopefully avoid making some of the same mistakes. Jake Hutchinson will walk you through some of the research, as well as a personal near miss, in this three part video series.
PART 2 OF COMMON PROFESSIONAL MISTAKES
PART 3 OF COMMON PROFESSIONAL MISTAKES
THE FOLLOWING VIDEO IS OPTIONAL.
Grain ID in the field takes practice. Here are some hints on how to identify different grains.
The following video offers some tips and tricks for snow crystal ID. This is something that people often struggle with. The goal of this talk is to help you build a foundation before arriving at the course. After you watch this video, take time to practice crystal ID in the field, whether it’s in the backcountry, at the ski area, or out your front door.
Here is a link to the International Classification for Seasonal Snow on the Ground This link offers further descriptions for improved crystal ID, as well as additional photos.
Below, Don Carpenter reviews the AM Form that he completed for the tour in the Teton area.
AAI Instructor, Dave Kikkert, talks through how to take weather observations, how to record them, and where to find the information you need in the SWAG.
Use the Snow, Weather and Avalanche Guidelines (SWAG) as a study guide. Page is where the avalanche observations section starts.
Don Sharaf is going to run you through a scribing exercise that you can self-correct at the end of the video. A likely scenario for when you might have to scribe would be touring with a partner and only wanting to expose one person to the slope where you are digging. Your partner goes on to the slope to dig and dictates their findings back to you.
Understanding how to document field observations and snow pits is an essential skill as a professional. In this video, Don Sharaf will talk through how to document a snow pit, beginning with the header information, all the way through identifying layers and doing stability tests. It’s important to document the pits you dig as a professional, in order to track layers throughout the season, as well as to have a written record of snowpack investigation.
THE FOLLOWING VIDEO IS OPTIONAL, ADDITIONAL MATERIAL. CHECK IT OUT IF YOU ARE INTERESTED.
It can be hard to agree on how big an avalanche is. Is it a D2 or a D3? A D2.5. This video offers a method for more effectively sizing avalanches.
If you want to practice using this method, watch the following video. Some of these avalanches are tricky to rate, as the length and depth of the crown aren’t given, nor are the vertical fall of the avalanche or the depth of the debris. Don’t get discouraged. It’s good practice, and if you are rating an avalanche in the field, you will likely have more information to use. If you want to record your answers, feel free to use this google sheet. Make a copy in your drive (or download this one) in order to use it.
When the temperature is above 0° C, the snowpack begins to move through a melt-freeze metamorphism. This means that the snowpack is often going through swings of being very strong when it’s frozen and very weak when it’s not frozen each day.
Here are some things to think about.
And here is a deeper dive into wet snow.
It is important to ask different questions when you are dealing with wet snow and wet snow avalanche problems. These questions include:
Did it freeze last night? How thick was the freeze? How is the new snow affecting the old snow? How wet is the snowpack?
You can find an interesting paper about wet snow forecasting here.
CONCLUSION:
How do facets form on the surface of the snow? What drives growth of depth hoar? How does surface hoar form? In the following two videos, Jake will cover a variety of faceting processes including near surface faceting. He will also cover surface hoar growth.
How do facets form on the surface of the snow? What drives growth of depth hoar? How does surface hoar form? In the following two videos, Jake will cover a variety of faceting processes including near surface faceting. He will also cover surface hoar growth.
Faceting can also occur on the surface of the snowpack. Faceting that happens at the top of the snowpack, rather than at the bottom of the snowpack is called Near Surface Faceting. There are 3 different near surface faceting processes – Diurnal Recrystallization, Radiation Recrystallization, and Melt Layer Recrystallization.
The following video will cover the faceting process, depth hoar formation, and near surface faceting.
SURFACE HOAR GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT.
Surface hoar is winter’s dew. It is formed under cold, clear, calm conditions. It is not a problem on the snow surface, but once it is buried, it often forms a weak layer.
