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Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Dec 4th, 2021–Dec 5th, 2021

Alpine
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely.
Alpine
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely.
Alpine
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely.

Regions

Kananaskis.

If you can deal with the poor valley bottom travel, you'll be rewarded with great skiing once over 2150m.

Confidence

Moderate -

Weather Forecast

Ice climbers rejoice! It looks like we're going to get our first cold snap of the season starting tomorrow afternoon. Around 4pm temperatures are expected to start dropping to -25! That's gonna sting. 

Aside from that small problem, it looks like a decent weather day tomorrow. Some flurries with no significant accumulation, moderate alpine winds from the west and broken skies all day. 

Avalanche Summary

It is very common for us to have "spindrift slabs" at the bottom of the bigger cliffs. Now is no different. We saw numerous loose dry avalanches pour down the bigger cliffs. Aside from that, there were no avalanches seen.

Snowpack Summary

Today's ski trip took us to Black Prince area. Quite an interesting day. Up to 2100m the snowpack is literally a frozen mass of snow. While some of the deeper snow hasn't frozen yet, the rock hard shell that covers it will keep it in place. As for ski quality...throwing a mouth guard and ibuprofen into your bag for the ski down wouldn't be a terrible idea (I'm only half joking). In all seriousness, I really did wish I had ski crampons today for the uptracking through the treeline elevation band.

Once above the 2150-2200m mark the snow quality improved greatly. The crust faded away and there was 20-35cm of fresh snow on top. We didn't have a windslab problem as we were tucked up against some cliffs, but you would certainly find them in exposed areas. A quick pit revealed a very well settled snowpack with no obvious weakness. How often do you read that for K-Country??

Terrain and Travel

  • Avoid lee and cross loaded slopes in the alpine.
  • Avoid slopes that sound hollow or drum-like.

Problems

Wind Slabs

Wind Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) formed by the wind. Wind typically transports snow from the upwind sides of terrain features and deposits snow on the downwind side. Wind slabs are often smooth and rounded and sometimes sound hollow, and can range from soft to hard. Wind slabs that form over a persistent weak layer (surface hoar, depth hoar, or near-surface facets) may be termed Persistent Slabs or may develop into Persistent Slabs.

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.