Avalanches: when they happen and what winter mountain-goers must know

A winter mountain is not a colder version of a summer one — it is a different environment. And the most serious difference is the avalanche.

How an avalanche forms

Snow does not lie on the ground as a single sheet. Every snowfall leaves its own layer, and these layers do not bond to each other equally well. When a weak layer stays in between — for instance an ice crust with fresh heavy snow on top — that layer becomes a sliding surface. When the load increases (new snow, wind, or a person's own weight), the upper layer breaks away as a slab.

Three main factors:

1. Slope angle. The vast majority of avalanches occur on slopes of 30–45 degrees. On gentler ground snow does not slide; on steeper ground it does not accumulate.
2. Snow structure. More than 30 cm of new snow in the past 24 hours, or snow packed by wind into a "pillow" on a slope — the highest-risk condition.
3. Weather change. Rapid warming, or freezing after rain, weakens the internal bonds in the snowpack.

Warning signs

• A "whumpf" sound and a sinking feeling as you walk — a layer is collapsing; this is the clearest danger signal there is.
• Fresh cracks running across the slope.
• Recent avalanche debris nearby.
• If wind has stripped snow from one side of a ridge and deposited it on the other, the loaded side is dangerous (a wind slab).

The 2017 Tufandağ accident

In February 2017 climbers died in an avalanche in the Tufandağ area — one of the most serious accidents in Azerbaijani mountaineering. The conclusion drawn from it should be repeated every winter: the country has no regular avalanche forecasting service. In Europe a daily avalanche bulletin is issued; here the judgement is left to the group itself. That makes conservative behaviour in winter not a preference but a necessity.

Practical rules

• Do not attempt a winter summit without an experienced guide.
• If you must cross a suspect slope: cross one at a time, with the others watching from a safe point. That guarantees at least one witness and rescuer stays out of it.
• Build the route along ridge lines or through forest, not across the middle of a wide open slope.
• Avoid steep snow slopes after midday warming.
• Avalanche equipment (transceiver, probe, shovel) only means something in the hands of someone trained to use it. The device does not provide safety — the practice does.

The winter alternative

Winter hiking is possible; only the route selection changes: low forest, the foot of a plateau, short day routes. We have a separate article on this: Winter in the mountains: what works and what to stay away from. High summits — Bazardüzü and Tufandağ — should in winter only be considered as a serious, fully prepared expedition.