A hard snow surface lying upon a softer layer; crust may be formed by sun, rain or wind, and is described as breakable crust or unbreakable crust, depending upon whether it will break under the weight
of a turning skier.
A hard snow surface lying upon a softer layer. Crust may be formed by sun, rain or wind, and is described as breakable crust or unbreakable crust, depending upon whether it will break under the weight
of a turning skier.
A friable, firm layer of snow or ice of varying thickness formed at the surface of the snowpack. It is designated as 'breakable' or 'unbreakable' according to its ability to support a person on skis.
Examples are wind crusts and slabs, melt-freeze crusts as well as sun and rain crusts (see Appendix A.1, DF or RG, MF, and IF, respectively). Melt-freeze-crusts can be up to several centimetres thick while sun and rain crusts usually form a thin, i.e., a few millimetres thick glaze of ice on the surface.