Sluff Management

[Twoplanker]

(rerun, but still interesting)

If you haven't read Jim Conway & Mark Newcomb's 1998 ISSW paper entitled "Sluff Management", definately give it a read.

Here's the abstract:

ABSTRACT: Since the first World Extreme Skiing Championships in Valdez in 1991, the Chugach Range around the Thompson Pass area has drawn thousands of skiers seeking steep powder and adventure skiing. The spring season often provides "windows" of stability which allows skiers and snowboarders to push into steep, technical, and exposed terrain. The steepest slopes now descended by heli ski operations in the area range from 40 to 60 degrees. While these "windows" of stability may have low hazard in terms of slab potential, sluffs and small point release avalanches remain a hazard. Over the last five years the staff at Valdez Heli Ski Guides have observed the interaction of skiers/boarders with sluffs in various terrain scenarios. The term "Sluff Management" was developed to describe the various techniques of avoiding and managing this hazard.

ISSW Paper - Sluff Management

[Dr. Crash]

Nice! Contrast to an article in PSIA's Professional Skier about how to have fun skiing your own sluff. Now you can do both, ski the small one, avoid the lethal one.

drC

[Sierra Cement]

So if it can bury you it's an avy,
but if it just knocks you on your ass it's sluff?

Regardless, the same rules of caution apply for both in terms of snow stability and terrain selection.

How about throwing a "Chugach Look" on a 50 degree slope at 50 mph?