Snow cornice even being on the snow on top of rock exposes the alpinist to hazard in this situation. The best practice in mountaineering is to stay far enough back from the edge so as not to be able to see the drop, as an approximate metric of exposure. In avalanche safety, cornices are a high avalanche danger as they often break and trigger larger avalanches that permeate several snow layers. Cornices are particularly vulnerable to collapse during periods of solar warming. Snow cornice A snow cornice or simply cornice (from the Italian cornice meaning "ledge") is an overhanging edge of snow
Blue Ridge Mountain . Across the Potomac the ridge continues as Elk Ridge in Maryland. The mountain's ridgecrest forms the border between several counties, with Loudoun County and Fauquier County, both in Virginia, to the east and Jefferson County, West Virginia, Clarke County, Virginia, and Warren County, Virginia, to the west. Blue Ridge Mountain consists mostly of anticlinal Catoctin Greenstone and is not underlain by Old Rag Granite, as is the Blue Ridge south of Manassas Gap. This is why the mountain is more ridgelike and less rugged than sections to the south. The greenstone was deposited during the Catoctin Formation and uplifted