When getting into steeper terrain, cornices kind of start to become a part of the equation.
They are amazingly beautiful pieces of snow shaped by the wind
but they can be extremely tricky and dangerous.
So let's start with a few facts.
Cornices are formed on sharp ridges
and then formed with like average winds,
which is gonna take the snow and put it up on the ridge
and when they fall they do big damage.
One thing to bear in mind is that the shape of a ridge
will affect the size of the cornice.
It's really important to take a huge margin of safety with cornices
and not play with it.
When they break, they break so suddenly that there is absolutely nothing you can do.
It's really hard to tell where there is a cornice and where you're actually on the actual ridge, with a good ground.
So it's pretty easy to just walk on a cornice fall through and go all the way down the mountains
and depending on what's below it could be fatal.
Quite often below a cornice there will be a big wind slab waiting for you as well.
Cornice's when they get formed, they can create a bit of a crack,
some kind of a crevasse behind the cornice.
That crevasse is usually covered by just a little bit of snow,
so just a tiny snow bridge, and it's quite frequent that people fall into them.
They seem gigantic and it always seems
that your little weight might not really affect much of the stability of the cornice, but it can.
So when there is a big temperature rise, it will trigger a lot of cornices and
you need to take that into consideration.
The biggest cornice break I ever witnessed was in Alaska on this glacier
when basically all the cornice line of the mountain fell down
and broke all the spine walls, all the way down so it ripped the whole face.
If you have to be under the cornice, try to be as quick as possible
and as much as you can try to hike or tour in protected areas.
Approaching from behind you can't really see where the cornice is
but here I've got good indication with the rocks,
so I know I can move all the way till the rocks
that's always the way to go
and if you can't you need to put the rope.
Like, here I suspect there would be rocks but I can't tell
but I know that in the line of these rocks for sure there will be
so I might take a bit of a wide march
and here I am
ah it's a tiny cornice.
If you're not sure, if you can't see any of the natural ground
the good technique is to probe
and if none of these techniques are possible
there's always the techniques of putting a snow anchor into the snow
getting roped up and go and check the cornice
that way if it breaks you won't fall with it
you will be hanging with a rope.
Cornices are to be taken super seriously with a big margin of safety.
There are a ton of accidents that happen with cornices
and that could be easily avoidable.
So next time your on a ridge, think about it, keep that in mind,
be safe and enjoy the ride.