Avalanche forecast

Kananaskis

Jan 25 – 26, 2015Alberta Parks
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Archived · expired 12 years ago

Avalanche danger

Tue
Wed
Alpine
3 · Considerable
Treeline
3 · Considerable
Below
2 · Moderate
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Highlights

Unusual conditions for late January with a "Spring" feel. Warm and sunny conditions on Monday will increase the avalanche danger through the day, especially on solar aspects. Recent wind loading has also created touchy wind slabs.

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Likely
    Size
    1–3
    Wind slab formation continues due to extreme W and SW winds. Various interfaces exist and these are variable in their sensitivity to triggering. Use caution in wind effected terrain as human triggering is likely.

  • Loose Wet

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Likely
    Size
    1–2
    Warm and sunny conditions with a weak overnight freeze will lead to loose wet avalanches on Monday. These will likely begin on SE aspects and then move through S and W aspects through the day.

  • Deep Persistent Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Unlikely - Possible
    Size
    2–4
    Some recent avalanche activity has stepped down to the basal weak layers. Full depth avalanches are possible.

Confidence

Fair

Weather Forecast

Very strong winds will continue into Monday. Sunny skies and warm temperatures are expected with the freezing level climbing to 2300m.

Avalanche Summary

A naturally triggered avalanche cycle is occurring, due to either wind loading or solar/warming triggers. A few slab avalanches up to size 2.0 were observed at Treeline elevations on mostly E and NE aspects with one exception on a W aspect. These have been triggered by wind loading in the past 24 to 48hrs. Several loose wet avalanches up to size 1.5 occurred today on all aspects except North due to very warm temperatures and periodic bursts of intense solar radiation. North aspects below 2300m did exhibit some snowballing.

Snowpack Summary

Extreme West to South-West winds are moving significant amounts of snow to lee aspects at Treeline and above. Wind slab formation is on-going. A few slab avalanches were observed today and are associated with this wind-loading. Moist snow is found up to 2300m on all aspects and much higher on solar aspects. Temperatures reached well above the freezing mark at Treeline today and snowballing and small loose wet slides were observed on all aspects. The Jan 16th surface hoar and the Dec crust layers are still cause for concern, as is the Nov facets. The snowpack is settling rapidly.

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