Kananaskis

With the cooler temperatures and previous widespread natural avalanche cycle, there is still the potential for avalanches to occur with human triggering, especially in the alpine where the rain crust doesn't exist.

Temperatures went below freezing on Sunday and as a result there was a 5cm thick supportive crust in the valley floors. Under this crust, the snowpack is generally wet and isothermal to ground up to around 2400m. The cooler temperatures will take a few days to penetrate the snowpack here.

Above 2400m the recent precipitation mainly fell as snow and there is up to 50cm of snow that as of Sunday being redistributed by moderate westerly winds forming new wind slabs in the upper elevations.

No avalanches reported & no road patrol today

The recent widespread historical avalanche cycle is beginning to slow down but it hasn't ended just yet. Recent wind slabs on Saturday were still failing in alpine areas as the winds increased throughout the day.

The majority of recent avalanche activity looks to be initiated by Wind/Storm slabs in the alpine then pulling out a wet slab around 2400m that ran on possibly the Jan 27th SH/FC interface.

Monday: Cloudy morning will part to mostly sunny skies in the afternoon. A night time low of -8 & a day time high of -2. Moderate Sw winds at ridgetop. Freezing levels could rise to 1800m by afternoon.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• A hard crust on the snow surface will help strengthen the snowpack, but may cause tough travel conditions.
• Continue to make conservative terrain choices while the storm snow settles and stabilizes.
• Pay attention to cornices and give them a wide berth when traveling on or below ridges.
• Avoid freshly wind-loaded terrain features.