A snow bridge is an arc across a crevasse, a crack in rock, a creek, or some other opening in terrain. It is typically formed by snow drift, which first creates a cornice, which may gradually grow to reach the other side of the opening.
A snow bridge may completely cover the opening and thus presents danger: it creates an illusion of unbroken surface while hiding the opening under a layer of snow of unknown thickness, possibly only several centimetres thick.
Snow bridges may also be formed inside a crevasse making it appear shallow.
Since a snow bridge is thicker and stronger at the edge of a crevasse, a fall through a bridge usually happens at some distance from the crevasse edge.
- Elaine Freedgood (2000) Victorian Writing about Risk: Imagining a Safe England in a Dangerous World, ISBN 0-521-78108-6 p.193
- Berner Oberland Haute Route Journal
- "Mountain Operations" (1947) by United States War Department p. 204
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