Location

One of the first questions relates to spatial differences throughout your area of travel. Some avalanche centers are able to forecast for specific areas while others may have a large region and can only account for larger, general areas. Knowing the difference is critical in deciding how a particular forecast will help to determine the avalanche problems within your area of travel.

Knowing the historic avalanche paths, and the associated avalanche problems that create instability within those paths will help with avoidance of those areas. If you are new to an area or just visiting, make sure to do the research to avoid the areas with a higher avalanche potential.

Location of a slope plays an important role in weather patterns. Storm snow totals are dependent on where weather originates and tracks towards. For example, the east side of the Teton Range receives more snow when the weather comes from the north. This is a factor that is unique to each mountain range in the world. Knowing what the prevailing weather patterns are for each area you travel will help create trip options after storms.

Elevation

Elevation plays a significant role in the amount and type of precipitation that a slope can receive. Higher elevation will likely equate to more snow totals, more wind, and colder temperatures. Inversely, lower elevations may receive rain, or reduced totals as the moisture releases over the upper mountain and the temperatures are relatively warmer.

Higher elevations will have a deeper snowpack than lower elevations. So, avalanche problems can vary due to this depth difference, even on the same slope.

Elevation also plays a significant role in springtime backcountry travel. Wet avalanche problems are far more likely to occur lower in the mountains earlier in the day. Thus, traveling through lower elevation terrain while it is refrozen and not receiving the influence of the sun is critical.

Aspect to Wind

Aspect is an important variable when understanding terrain's relation to wind and sun exposure. With wind, it is important to delineate the differences between windward and leeward terrain. The windward side will be scoured and provide poor snow quality. The leeward side may be loaded and more susceptible to wind slab avalanches.

Wind can channel through mountain ranges. The prevailing wind (or the wind direction that the clouds are moving in) may be loading upper elevations from SW -> NE, but lower in the mountains frictional forces are at play. The lower elevations may receive anomaly wind patterns as they get pushed through the mountain's varying canyons and valleys. Being able to identify the effects of wind on the snowpack while traveling is a very important tool for analysis of avalanche problems.

Aspect to Sun

Aspect in relation to the sun also has a great influence on the snowpack, especially as the sun gets stronger during the spring months. Sunny aspects will typically develop crusts due to a dampening of the surface and a refreeze during the night. These crusts can be associated with faceted grains above and below, thus causing instability during the next storm cycle.

The sun can also warm objects that are darker than the surrounding snowpack. Trees and rock outcroppings are subject to warming from the sun at a faster rate than the surrounding snow that is able to reflect the heat better. Thus, those areas become trigger points, or areas that the bonds of snow are able to break down and become weak links in the overall snowpack.