The picture was taken in a place called Gulmarg, which is a ski resort in the Kashmir region of the Himalayas. It's one of the outer bowls. Resorts like this one are nothing like any in North America. It's lift accessed back country, very little if any avalanche control. You go to a place like that you usually hire a local guide to take you out.
I don't think it's old snow on a glacier, I think it's a heavily wind loaded slope that cut loose, probably just below a ridge top.
I remember 3 or 4 years ago in Fernie, the snow safety guys released one in Lizard bowl that rated size 3.5-4 (which almost never happens within an area that's controlled on a regular basis) That one had a 4 meter crown and was massive, it filled in a big gully where it ran out for a half a kilometer or more. That slope wind loaded that much overnight. Just goes to show how fast conditions can turn deadly in a short period of time
wow
that's a lot of snow!!
When we took the avalanche course we were digging right to the ground!(there was only 4 feet of snow and crap snow at that):d
I had the buy a new shovel when i get home!
I would love to analyze that one too. Just looking at the pic I can see what look like 2 layers of what might be rain crust with faceted snow underneath. The one layer is about the level of the guy's shoulders and the other (the failure layer) is at his feet. I would bet if it was possible to isolate a column down the that shoulder height layer it would probably just pop right out on its own.
...hope I'm not boring you all I am a bit of a pit geek. I always like to try to figure out why it slid and what it slid on.
a couple of years ago we were going up the shaw via holmes river way. and we went through a distruction path this size or bigger there were trees snaped like toothpicks about 20-24" dia very scary.