Kananaskis

Watch for pockets of wind slab on all aspects in the Alpine. Buried sun crusts on solar aspects may be reactive in steeper terrain at treeline and above.

Tuesday will be cool with temps between -20 and -14 under a mix of sun and cloud. Later in the afternoon some very light flurries could roll in. Winds should be light from the north.

Wednesday should be mostly sunny and unseasonably cold (-25 in the morning!).

Isolated loose dry avalanches up to size 1.0 observed today, adds to the more widespread cycle observed over the weekend. No recent slab activity has been noted.

Convective flurries on Monday afternoon dropped 5cm of snow in a short period of time. These convective flurries will bring highly variable snow amounts to the different valleys. At upper elevations the winds have just started to form a wind skin on the surface, and this could be more developed into wind slabs in lee and cross-loaded features that are wind prone. Forecasters are watching the Feb 19 interface down 40 to 60cm. This layer was a hard wind slab or sun crust on solar aspects, and may be a good sliding layer where enough snow density sits above. Conditions are highly variable depending on aspect and elevation, so take the time to dig into the snowpack and evaluate the bond with the Feb 19 interface.

• Be alert to conditions that change with elevation and wind exposure.
• Wind slabs may be poorly bonded to the underlying crust.
• Minimize exposure to sun-exposed slopes when the solar radiation is strong.