[treewell]

Greetings from Niseko Japan where we learned about a new type of backcountry hazard. The 600" inches that has fallen so far this year sits on bamboo grass at ground layer in places. It is slippery enough to cause crevasses to open. Was standing on a snow bridge that had drifted over a crack and next thing I broke through about 6' down. Any deeper and it would have been very tough to climb out.

Here's view inside the crack.



This is the bamboo layer that provides sliding surface. Known to generate huge slides in late spring.



Here is wife looking down into the crack. Very tough to extricate without two people.



Main lesson is to steer clear of any holes in the snow pack. The crack I fell into was obvious in retrospect by the holes above and below the drifted snow bridge.

[QuiverQueen]

I thought this thread was going to talk about a problem with the bamboo in some skis not holding up! Thank goodness the skis are ok.

Oh, and that is a weird hazard. Cool pics.
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A humble student at Fryingpan University.

[Brenda]

Weird and rather cool. Who knew?

[cesare]

I've posted about this several times before and Snowgimp mentioned them in her trip report last month. The bamboo grass is called sasa. In April one day will be warm enough that meltwater percolates down and lubricates the sasa and all the slopes with glide cracks avalanche to the ground within an hour or so of each other. We don't see this kind of thing much in a contintental climate. But you really have to watch out for these in Japan just as if they were crevasses in a glacier. It's serious.

Great pictures. Glad you were ok.
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that sounds like a sure-fire way to get bitch-slapped by devil's club -- dschane

[Nick (AT)]

I've seen some pretty big glide cracks in the Alps. Never thought about them getting bridged by new snow and forming a crevasse hazard
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Nick (AT)

We are not an endangered species ourselves yet, but this is not for lack of trying. (Douglas Adams)

[J]

Creep cracks in the woods can be problem around coastal Ak too. Burried boulders/cliffs are often the catalyst.

[mark]