Avalanche forecast

Kananaskis

Feb 18 – 19, 2015Alberta Parks
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Archived · expired 12 years ago

Avalanche danger

Fri
Sat
Alpine
3 · Considerable
Treeline
2 · Moderate
Below
1 · Low
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Highlights

A bit of snow is on the way for later in the week. It will be a welcome addition when it arrives!

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible - Likely
    Size
    2–4
    As the natural cycle becomes more distant, it is getting easier to relax and forget about this slab problem. Be sure to keep it in mind as the terrain becomes more windloaded and unpredictable in terms of snow coverage.

  • Deep Persistent Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    2–5
    Thin areas, and paths that have not avalanched during the cycle are more likely to have this problem.

Confidence

Good

Weather Forecast

We have seen a wide spread between overnight lows and daytime highs. We can expect this to continue for the next few days. Tomorrow's alpine high will be -5. The winds will make it feel a bit chillier though. Ridge winds will be 30km/hr and gust to 55km/hr. There will be some flurries giving trace amounts. Freezing level is forecasted to be 1600m.

Avalanche Summary

No new avalanches

Snowpack Summary

No significant change in the last day. The overnight lows have been quite cold. Burstall Pass parking hit -19.7 as the low last night. This has tightened the snowpack considerably at all elevations. The surface crust is thick below treeline, solar aspects. In places today it was 10cm thick and supportive enough to walk on! There was little evidence of wind transport at treeline elevations today. Alpine windslabs are focused on the Eastern (lee) aspects for the most part. Valley bottom depths are about 90cm's and treeline averages 154 cm's.

Regions covered