These data on snow instability include three data subsets that were analyzed and the results published by Reuter and Schweizer (2018) who suggest a novel framework on how to describe snow instability by failure initiation, crack propagation and slab tensile support. Please refer to the Read-me file for further details on the data. These data are the basis of the following publication: Reuter, B. and Schweizer, J., 2018. Describing snow instability by failure initiation, crack propagation and slab tensile support. Geophys. Res. Lett., 45, doi: 10.1029/2018GL078069.