AVY ACRONYM CHEAT SHEET

DESCRIBING OBSERVED AVALANCHES
When avalanches are observed in the field, it is good to be able to record general information about them. The US and Canada use the following abbreviations to classify observed slides.

SIZE:
1 - Minor sluffs, less than 100'
2 - Could bury, injure or kill a person
3 - Could bury or destroy a car or break a few trees
4 - Could destroy a train car or forest up to 10 acres
5 - Could destroy a village or forest up to 100 acres
(half sizes can be used when appropriate)

TRIGGER:
N - Natural
A - Artificial
S - Skier
D - Snowboarder
M - Snowmobile
W - Walker / Snowshoer
X - Explosive
C - Falling Cornice
O/? - Other / Unknown

TYPE:
HS - Hard Slab (angular debris, intact large pieces)
SS - Soft Slab (loose or broken debris, smaller pieces)
WS - Wet Slab
WL - Wet Loose (slush flows, etc.)
L - Loose Slide (point release type sluff)
I - Ice Avalanche

BED SURFACE:
N - New snow (within the newly fallen snow)
O - Old snow
G - Ground

 

These abbreviations are typically arranged as in this example:

SS - AS - 2 - O

This means:
(1) A 'Soft Slab' type avalanche
(2) Triggered 'Artifically' by a 'Skier'
(3) That was a 'Size 3' in scale
(4) And failed on an 'Old Snow' interface (bed surface).

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