Loose Dry

Loose dry avalanches, also known as sluffs, are small surface avalanches involving cold, dry snow that has lost cohesion. They occur on steep slopes at all elevations and are generally small. You’ll see natural ones most frequently during storms, but also under cold, dry conditions.

Loose dry avalanches can be dangerous if they knock you off your feet, send you into a terrain trap, or push you into a treewell. To manage them, turn out of the path of your sluff often to allow it to pass. Stay off large, steep slopes, where loose dry avalanches that start small can entrain increasing amounts of snow, becoming larger as they descend.