Based on a presentation at a 2016 engineering conference in Quebec with Grant Statham and Pascal Haegeli, this video outlines types and sources of uncertainty. Then it outlines a process of acknowledging and reducing uncertainty, including it in decisions and communicating it to stakeholders. #avalanche #uncertainty #management

This video outlines some general advantages and disadvantages of avalanche decision aids. The advantages and disadvantages are general enough that – I hope – both backcountry recreationists and avalanche practitioners find something useful in this video. This video does not explain how to use any decision aids but does show four decision aids and identify where to find more information on them. #decision #decisionaid #avalanche #uncertainly #avaluator

When salt is added to snow, the snow cools because heat from the snow flows into concentrated salt water around the salt grains. The surprisingly large amount of heat required for melting (i.e. latent heat) means that rain at 0 deg C contains MUCH more heat than dry snow at 0 deg C. This surpringly large amount of heat contributes to avalanche formation in at least two ways. Revised October 2025. #latentheat #melting #snow #avalanche #meltfreeze #crust #faceting #temperaturegradient

Simple demonstrations of brittle and ductile fractures. Snow can fail and fracture in the same ways as toffee. #ductile #brittle #snow #avalanche

A field experiment shows major limitations of infrared images of the pit wall for avalanche forecasting. However, some free images are valuable for avalanche education.

This video identifies some key differences between snow avalanches and other slope hazards. Hopefully, the video (and the book on Planning Methods for Snow Avalanche Risk) will help those who plan for various slope hazards better understand snow avalanche hazards.

Climate change has been a focus for the avalanche world in recent decades. This presentation summarizes two papers that look at the snowpack and avalanches and how they have changed over the last 30 - 50 years in western Canada. For a 2022 paper by J. Hendrikx and others, search for: The potential impacts of climate change on snow avalanche hazards on the Trans- Canada Highway in Glacier National Park. #snow #avalanche #climatechange #trend #westerncanada #glaciernationalpark #rogerspass

A case study for avalanche practitioners about a difficult winter in which a weak layer of facets on a melt-freeze crust produced avalanches - including many hard to forecast avalanches - throughout the winter. #persistentweaklayer #persistentslab #facet #slabavalanche #avalanche #forecasting

This presentation outlines an objective method to assess manual snow profiles. The method only identified 67% to 75% of unstable slopes. This means it did not identify 25% to 33% of the unstable slopes! The inaccuracy is partly because the count of Yellow Flags is too simple to capture all the information relevant to skier triggering. Also, a snow profile is only a point observation of the snowpack. Slightly revised 2025. For the paper by Bruce Jamieson and Juerg Schweizer, search for: checklist assess snow profiles #snowprofile #yellowflags #avalanche #forecasting #humantriggering #slopetesting

This presentation is based on a paper by Bruce Jamieson and Alan Jones for the 2012 ISSW in Alaska. It reviews risk concepts then summarizes quantitative vulnerability for buildings, people in buildings, people in vehicles and people in the backcountry. The paper is at http://www.ucalgary.ca/asarc/Issw2012_Vulnerability_JamiesonJones #workplace #assessment #backcountryecreation #exposure #scenarios #avalanche #risk #vulnerability

Mark Staples explains how the radiation exchange at the snow surface plays a dominant role in the formation of depth hoar, surface hoar, melt-layer recrystallization (aka dry-on-wet faceting) and two processes for near surface faceting (diurnal and radiation recrystallization). This is Part 2 of a 3 part video series on the energy exchange at the snow surface. Audience: avalanche practitioners and anyone keen on avalanche science. #energyexchange #snowsurface #radiation #longwave #shortwave #solar #depthhoar #surfacehoar #recrystallization #faceting

Mark Staples and Bruce Jamieson summarize the effects of wind and precipitation on the energy transfers at the snow surface. Then they outline how wind, precip and radiation vary over terrain. Thanks to Simon Horton for constructive comments on a draft of this video.