The video below shows a skier in Portillo, Chile rolling a ball of snow down a slope.
The ball gains size as it rolls picking up more and more wet snow, but it doesn’t appear that the skier realizes this is an early warning sign for avalanche conditions.
The Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center says:
“Pinwheels and rollerballs of snow indicate the snow surface is getting wet and loosing strength. As more of these start rolling downhill the danger of wet snow avalanches increases.”
Check out the video below:
“Occurred on August 21, 2022 / Portillo We went on a trip to Portillo to play with the snow, we made snowballs, and whoever got the biggest one won. I won because it was super big on TikTok it went viral.”
Essentially, rollerballs and pinwheels indicate that wet avalanches could happen given the right circumstance.
It’s hard to tell how steep the terrain in the video is, but the fact that a rollerball was able to form in the first place would be enough to make me cautious…
Share this post with a friend and spread the word. Avalanche safety is important, and you can never brush up on it enough!
