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🏔️ How avalanches start

See how layered snow, weak bonds, triggers, weather, and terrain combine to start an avalanche.

3
lessons
~20 min
to learn
Adults
level
Start the course →

What you’ll learn

  1. The snowpack is a layered materialExplain how slabs, weak layers, and snowpack tests create the structural conditions for an avalanche.Avalanche formation begins with a layered snowpack whose strength and cohesion vary through space and time.
  2. A crack becomes a releaseTrace the sequence from a trigger and weak-layer failure to crack propagation and downhill movement.A local collapse can become a wide slab release when a crack propagates and gravity overcomes friction on steep terrain.
  3. Weather and terrain load the slopeConnect snowfall, wind, warming, and terrain shape to avalanche loading and runout.Weather adds or redistributes load, while terrain determines where snow starts, travels, concentrates, and stops.

Questions this course answers

What combination is fundamental to a slab avalanche?

A slab can transmit stress across a slope when it rests on a comparatively weak layer or interface.

What happens after a weak-layer crack reaches a critical size?

Dynamic crack propagation can break the slab's crown and side boundaries, allowing it to slide.

Why can a clear day still have a wind-slab avalanche problem?

Wind loading can build a new slab and leave it poorly bonded even when snowfall has stopped.

What are the three parts of an avalanche path?

The start zone is where snow releases, the track channels it, and the runout is where it slows and deposits debris.

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