A vocabulary of landscape — a landscape of words
1068 entries
whumpf
A whumpf is the sound and the sensation of a weak layer collapsing inside a snowpack under your weight: a dull hollow thud, often felt through the boots as the surface drops an inch, sometimes propagating outward for many yards with an audible run. It is the most direct warning sign in avalanche terrain, and it means the snowpack has just failed where you are standing. It does not mean the snowpack is stabilizing.
Etymology
The word is purely imitative and it entered the avalanche vocabulary from the mouths of people who heard it, which is the origin of a fair share of snow terminology. It is one of the very few technical terms in any field that is simply the noise the thing makes, written down as closely as the alphabet allows.
Notes
The significance is that a whumpf on flat ground carries the same information as a whumpf on a slope. The weak layer that just collapsed underfoot is the same layer sitting under the slope above you, so the sound in a valley bottom is direct evidence about terrain you have not yet entered. Along with recent avalanche activity and shooting cracks, it is one of the three signs treated as unambiguous.