A large powder avalanche on Mt. Blanc, France. Such avalanches can reach 200 km/h. A dense-flowing component of similar speed may be hidden by the powder component. Although the greatest impact pressures are created by the dense-flowing component, both the dense-flowing and the powder components are considered for hazard mapping and for design impact pressures. Hazard maps are used to help located residential areas, industrial facilities, ski facilities as well as corridors for transportation, power, communications and pipelines. Hazard maps are based on historical records including air photos, studies of vegetation including tree-ring dating, avalanche dynamics and statistical models.

Two graduate students at Rogers Pass, British Columbia observe a profile of all snowpack layers before measuring the strength of the weak layers. Some avalanche forecasting operations in Canada use the strength of weak layers, along with the load due to the overlying slab, to calculate stability indices. Other stability indices include the stress due to an average skier.

Researcher approaches a crown fracture of a dry slab avalanche in the Cariboo Mountains. The avalanche was remotely triggered by a snowmobiler on the gentle slopes above the crown fracture.

Protective Forest for Village of Andermatt, Switzerland. Large avalanches run down the slopes on both sides of the protective forest. The forest prevents large avalanches from starting above the village. The interaction between the forest and avalanches is a part of many project to mitigate avalanche hazards.

This house in Davos, Switzerland has been designed and reinforced to mitigate the avalanche risk to the occupants. The windows have strong shutters and the walls are reinforced. The kitchen and garage of such houses are often placed facing the avalanche slope. The rooms where people spend the most time, such as the bedrooms, are located on the opposite side of the house. Some houses have a bunker in the basement for temporary occupancy during extreme storms. Precautionary evacuations are also used in areas where destructive avalanches have long return intervals such as 100 years.

Snowboarder doing a shovel tilt test to help assess the stability of near surface layers. Professional forecasters and recreationists use this and other mechanical tests of snow stability. However, because snow stability varies within snow slopes and changes over time, too much emphasis should not be placed on any point observation of the snowpack.

To test the strength of a weak snow layer or weak interface at the base of a slab, the snow is gripped with a shear frame that is placed a few mm above the weak layer or interface, and pulled to fracture within a second. The results of such simple mechanical tests are used to calculate stability indices for avalanche forecasting. Improving stability indices is an active research topic.