Natural avalanches possible, human triggered probable.
Treeline
Natural avalanches possible, human triggered probable.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Alpine
Natural avalanches possible, human triggered probable.
Treeline
Natural avalanches possible, human triggered probable.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Alpine
Natural avalanches possible, human triggered probable.
Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Regions
Kananaskis.
The snowpack will be slow to stabilize with the cooler temps forecast. Cracking and whumpfing is still common at treeline so mellow terrain is key!!
Confidence
High.
Weather Forecast
The long story short is temperatures are gonna get cooler, the skies will begin to clear and winds will decrease out of the NW as a cooler air mass moves into the region. No significant precip is expected for the next few days.
Avalanche Summary
A few new size two avalanches were observed mainly at the treeline. Slab depths looked to be around 100cm with propogations of up to 50m. The Smuts Fist Col also failed in the storm sz 3 likely running full path. More slides also likely occurred but fracture lines were filling in quickly due to new snow and winds.
Snowpack Summary
Another 10cm of snow over the past 24hrs brings our total amounts of settled storm snow up to 60-70cm. This new snow is overlying the dec 10th facet interface the is producing easy to moderate shears down 60ish cm. This layer may be deeper in more wide affected areas and also more reactive. Forecasters on Friday turned around at a treeline feature due to whumpfing and cracking on this interface. With the snowpack doubling in the past week it is overloaded and primed for human triggerred avalanches. Pull back and stick to conservative terrain with minimal overhead exposure.
Problems
Persistent Slabs
Persistent Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) in the middle to upper snowpack, when the bond to an underlying persistent weak layer breaks. Persistent layers include: surface hoar, depth hoar, near-surface facets, or faceted snow. Persistent weak layers can continue to produce avalanches for days, weeks or even months, making them especially dangerous and tricky. As additional snow and wind events build a thicker slab on top of the persistent weak layer, this avalanche problem may develop into a Deep Persistent Slab.
Deep Persistent Slabs
Deep Persistent Slab avalanches are the release of a thick cohesive layer of hard snow (a slab), when the bond breaks between the slab and an underlying persistent weak layer deep in the snowpack. The most common persistent weak layers involved in deep, persistent slabs are depth hoar or facets surrounding a deeply buried crust. Deep Persistent Slabs are typically hard to trigger, are very destructive and dangerous due to the large mass of snow involved, and can persist for months once developed. They are often triggered from areas where the snow is shallow and weak, and are particularly difficult to forecast for and manage.