Slope Aspect? Where is North? Use a Shadow!

The video below shows a really easy way of figuring out which slopes face North (S, E & W) by using shadows. WARNING: This only works when the sun is out! 

I refer to these North’ish facing slopes a lot. It’s often where the best light snow is. But also the vast majority of avalanche accidents are cold, dry slab avalanches triggered by the victim(s) themselves. They mainly happen in December, January and February on North’ish facing slopes (in the Northern Hemisphere). Hear more about this in our UK series of Talks.

Knowing which direction a slope faces can also help you with finding the best off-piste snow quality too. A classic example is with spring snow skiing. Here, avoid those rock-hard icy North’ish facing slopes first thing. Instead, begin your morning on East’ish facing slopes which catch the sun’s rays and soften first. Then move round through South’ish facing aspects, then through to West and finally North, where the snow ‘comes around’ softer later. 

You can discover more by attending an Essentials Talk at our UK ORTOVOX/HAT Avalanche Awareness Tour, now underway. Having got off to a good start in London, we’re moving on with more Talks at Hemel Hempstead, Manchester, Kendal and Glasgow. Transceiver training sessions in London, Sale and Poole. See list of dates beneath the video.

UK Off-piste ‘Safety is Freedom’ Tour 2024

AVALANCHE RESCUE & TRANSCEIVER TRAINING (3 hour sessions):

Wimbledon Common
Sat 9 November, 1.30 pm
Sun 10 November,  11.00 am
Sat 28 December,  1.00 pm

Sale Water Park
Sun 17 November, 1.30 pm

Sandbanks Beach
Sat 30 November, 12 pm
Wed 1 January, 12 pm

“Safety is freedom”