Is this an avalanche?

[ikwahr]

This strange avalanche in Yosemite NP almost looks like a waterfall:

[Scott P]

Yes. It's not strange or unusual at all. That's what avalanches look like, especially when they spill over a cliff.

[peter303]

I suspect the sound has a 30 second delay due to the distance. So the photographer may not have heard it until well after it started.

[ikwahr]

Yes. It's not strange or unusual at all. That's what avalanches look like, especially when they spill over a cliff.

Interesting. I always imagined avalanches to occur where the landscape was covered with thick snow and then a slab broke off and slid. Here, the part that slid is probably out of sight but the rest of the landscape is largely bare rock and does not seem like it would have a huge load of snow to cause an avalanche. Speaking from no experience at all.

[MonGoose]

In the spring, the snow melts out first at lower elevations and warmer aspects while persisting longer into the summer in the couloirs. What we're seeing here is a wet slide from higher elevations running into a lower area that has already melted out. The trigger is the warm temperatures and a snowpack that probably hasn't been freezing overnight. Once enough snow melts, the water acts as a lubricant for the remaining snow to slide. This is a very thick, wet, and heavy snow that is different from the powdery avalanches that occur in the winter. California experienced a record snowpack this year, so there will be a lot more of this type of activity than usual.

[Trotter]

Yes when they slide down on bare rock, they look like waterfalls.

Heres one I spotted in chile in torres del paine. Looks pretty similar, and it made a cool noise like that video too

w trek.jpg

[SkaredShtles]

This strange avalanche in Yosemite NP almost looks like a waterfall:

I mean... technically it is falling water... so it *is* a waterfall.



Check out this cool one:

[ECF55]

One of my favorite videos was the one from Kyrgyzstan (a few years ago) that rapidly moved all the way down the mountain and over the observer. It's a testament to how much energy is inherent in the avalanche, but also how the ice-air suspended fluid literally flows across the landscape much further than you might initially expect. Careful out there!

[Trotter]

One of my favorite videos was the one from Kyrgyzstan (a few years ago) that rapidly moved all the way down the mountain and over the observer. It's a testament to how much energy is inherent in the avalanche, but also how the ice-air suspended fluid literally flows across the landscape much further than you might initially expect. Careful out there!

damn thats awesome.

[GuiGirard]

I've seen many of those in the Alps when I was living there. Typically I would see and hear them from the towns at low elevations, where spring weather and gardening would be well underway and nobody would be thinking avalanche anymore. Of course we'd hear the boom with a delay and by the time we'd look up to the mountain, they had already been flowing for a while. Sometimes some would jump multiple cliffs.

Wet snow avalanches, that typically occur in warm and sunny weather.