>>2803115There’s a whole science to it, here in Utah where there’s a big skiing scene, the Utah avalanche center tracks these conditions throughout the winter. Colorado, Washington, and Montana have similar orgs I believe. If you’re interested in learning all about it you can check out the book Staying Alive In Avalanche Terrain by Bruce Tremper. There are many factors like temperature and wind history, the amount of snowfall, whether there’s cloud cover, how much water content is in the snow, and how long it’s been there, aspect of the slope, angle of the slope, time of year, etc. Fascinating stuff, really. I realize I’m talking about avalanches but avalanche risk is wholly dependent on snow conditions, and since avalanches kill people that’s where a lot of the information is.
