Hard slabs break ___ you

• A. Under you / your feet
• B. Above
• C. Beside you
• D. Around you

Answer: (B)

Hard slabs break above you because the release in a snowpack avalanche usually initiates in the slab that sits over a weaker layer. The dense, cohesive snow above can shear and fracture from the surface downward, and when it releases, the mass moves downslope as a unit, often burying whatever is directly beneath the breaking area. That vertical direction of failure is why being under a potential slab, cornices, or the upper edge of a slope is especially dangerous. The snow breaking and moving comes from above, not from beneath or to the sides, which is why the correct fill is “above you.”