UKH

Anything looking vaguely skiable up there at the moment? It usually all vanishes the day I arrive! Thanks.

In reply to earlsdonwhu:

A skier got avalanched today skiing somewhere on the Carnedd. Interestingly he said there was so much grass sticking out, and it wasn't great, he didn't even think of the danger. Banged up and lost his poles but no worse fortunately.

In reply to TobyA:

A salutary lesson for all......skiers and walkers alike.

That the trouble...with thin snow cover you don't want to be skiing anything rocky but adhesion to a damp grassy surface is likely to be very poor.

Glad nothing too serious happened to this person.

In reply to earlsdonwhu:

Northern Carneddau well covered. Lots of grass poking up. Won't get many quality turns buts it's skiing. And Skiing's skiing.

In reply to Tim Davies:

Thanks.

In reply to TobyA:

Gosh that's scary, in that case I'm guessing a slight risk of windslab on shiny grass on south aspect of Y Garn?

In reply to kevin stephens:

He stated it was wind-blown snow sliding on an underlying snow layer, rather than a full-depth slide. However, plenty of potential for that too! Slope angle around 38 degrees, so right in the zone.

Having seen the photo, the slope really does look innocuous. If you're on Facebook, his post has been shared with the 'Avalanche Geeks' group.

In reply to earlsdonwhu:

Not stable at the moment. Just you wait for a few freeze thaw cycles first.

In reply to Lion Bakes:

Heading up on Thursday so we'll see.......

In reply to earlsdonwhu:

Indeed. Plenty of people have been skiing lots of stuff. One slide does not global instability make.

In reply to TobyA:


Yeah, grass growing through , that will have definitely been an avalanche....

In reply to Jim 1003:

Not sure what your point is caller?

In reply to Jim 1003:


You’ve gotta love UKC comments!

Most definitely an avalanche - SS-ASu-D1.5/R2-S if you want to be technical. 20cm crown wall about 15-20m wide, debris run of around 100m, soft wind-slab layer releasing over an older snow layer, not to ground. Enough to take me 50m or so at speed (through lots of quite hard rocks). The grass sticking through was everywhere that wasn’t windloaded, not where the slide was. The skiing was pretty rubbish everywhere but it was a nice day to be out.

The snows pretty much all gone now though if anyone was wondering.