Short and tight or long and lean.....What do you like?

I was listening to an avalanche presentation last night and the presenter had some interesting comments on finding slope angle. One comment he had was observing the tracks left by other skiers. He stated that it takes steep slopes, 30 degrees are more, to make short little tight turns. This makes some sense because when it's steeper you check your speed by making shorter tighter turns. When the slope is not so steep, 30 degrees or less, to make beautiful turns speed is your friend. On these low angle slopes your turns will look more long, lean and narrow.



In the photo above you can see the happy skiers making long graceful straighter turns. This slope is maybe 20 degree or less. Don't forget, you can have a blast skiing slopes like this and you can even ski them during extreme avalanche conditions.



In this other photo you can see the turns are shorter, tighter and there are many more of them. This slope is somewhere in the 30-34 degree area.

Remember, avalanche safety is all about the observations. The more observations you have, the more information you have to make good decisions. One great observation would be if the skiers who made the tracks skied down to you. Just ask them if they measured the slope and what angle it was. But......that would be a big trust thing.