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SnowFlurry

SnowFlurry 11 2016/17 | Snow cover & tensions

Wind and fresh snow now provide the necessary tension for avalanches.

by Lukas Ruetz 01/13/2017
Some people may ask themselves: "Why wasn't it dangerous before the change in the weather in terms of the old snow problem? The weak layers were already pronounced before." The answer lies in the tension.

In light of the current situation, it is naturally difficult to know what level of knowledge is required to be able to write something like the WeatherBlog or SnowFlurry in an understandable way. When you think about snow, it starts with whether the majority of readers know and, above all, understand the difference between the types of transformation, have the definitions of the hazard levels in their heads or understand the difference between brittle and non-brittle drifting snow. In order to be able to follow the SnowFlurry, it is obligatory to have read at least one book on snow & avalanche science. Here we refer to the modern book by the PG editorial team: PowderGuide: Avalanches, risk check for freeriders.

Definition of tension & strength

Tension is a common word in avalanche reports, but also relatively abstract for some people when it comes to snow. That's why we google our way through life and get the following results: "Stress: force inside an elastic body that acts against its shape created by the action of external forces." This is a general formulation, but there are also different types of stress in the snowpack: Primarily tensile, compressive and shear stresses.

Since the consensus these days with regard to slab avalanches is that the key point in the descent of one is the "fracture", the snow pusher may like the following formulation from a less scientific online dictionary, but for the purposes of basic imagination this is certainly sufficient: "The strength of a material describes the maximum stress that can be applied by mechanical loads before failure occurs. Failure can be a plastic (permanent) deformation or even a fracture. Snow behaves elastically (returns to its original shape), plastically (retains its shape) or produces ductile or brittle fractures when deformed. This brings us back to a central point in the concept of snow and avalanches: The snowpack is a framework of coherent crystals with air pockets. As long as the framework is connected, you can trample on it - as soon as it breaks apart somewhere, a part of it can collapse and thus continue to break and cause an avalanche.

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Current reference and reduction to the essentials

Wind and fresh snow are currently providing us with the necessary stress build-up in areas of the build-up transformed subsoil. This is because the stresses in a built-up, mostly loose snow cover with a few thin crusts are not very pronounced. The best way to visualize this is to reduce it to the differences in hardness in the snowpack. As a user or winter sports enthusiast, you simply equate the differences in hardness within a snowpack with the stresses in the snowpack (even if this is not entirely technically correct). Ergo: Hard on soft corresponds to high tension and is to be considered negative.

There would be a lot to mention in this regard - today, for once, we will keep it shorter and refer to the book "Lawinen - Verstehen - Vermeiden - Praxistipps", which is very different from the mainstream and provides in-depth information on mechanical deformation, stresses and fracture modes in simple language.

One thing is clear: a great deal of research is currently being carried out into the scientific basis of the snowpack and fractures in it, and the picture is constantly changing or is only slowly being refined.

Note: Large differences in hardness between snow layers should be viewed negatively. An inhomogeneous snowpack has greater tension and is considered more dangerous.

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This article has been automatically translated by DeepL with subsequent editing. If you notice any spelling or grammatical errors or if the translation has lost its meaning, please write an e-mail to the editors.

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