Snow Creep: Its Engineering Problems and Some Techniques and Results of Its Investigation

Investigations have been undertaken on aspects of the slow creep of the snow pack on mountain slopes in southern British Columbia. Studied particularly were (1) the rate of slip of the basal layer of snow on its substratum, (2) the pressures applied by the creeping snow pack on some stationary obstacles, and (3) the regional and the year-to-year variations of such pressures. Simple, relatively inexpensive equipment and methods have been developed to explore these problems. These indicate, for example, basal creep velocities up to 90 cm/winter season on very steep slopes, and pressures in the order of 0.5 kg/cm 2 under extreme conditions. These studies lead to guidelines for future site investigations of areas subject to snow creep.