Avalanche forecast

Kananaskis

Feb 24 – 25, 2020Avalanche Canada
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Archived · expired 7 years ago

Avalanche danger

Wed
Thu
Alpine
2 · Moderate
Treeline
2 · Moderate
Below
1 · Low

Highlights

Lots of variation in snow quality lately. Some areas are hanging in there with good snow, while others are tougher to ski. Low elevation, sheltered areas seem to be the best bet for decent skiing.

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    1–2.5

    Watch for new wind slabs with the incoming precipitation and moderate SW winds.

  • Deep Persistent Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Unlikely
    Size
    1.5–3

    The basal weaknesses still linger. While difficult to trigger, any resulting avalanche will be large.

Confidence

Moderate - Forecast snowfall amounts are uncertain.

Weather Forecast

The southwest flow will continue tomorrow. There will be variable winds early in the day, but eventually the light winds will settle to a westerly flow. The temps will be consistent at -12 to -8. We are expecting some light snow, some areas may get up to 8cm's overnight. The flurries will likely be convective in nature, so expect local amounts to vary. It should be a cloudy day...very similar to today.

Avalanche Summary

Nothing new today.

Snowpack Summary

Convective flurries have given us bit of snow lately. Not enough to reset the skiing, but enough to take the edge off the surface crust down low. Speaking of crusts, the rain crust is very apparent up to 1950m and slightly higher on solar aspects where we have a sun crust. So far these crusts haven't been a problem. The other issue is the widespread wind slabs. Any open areas seems to have a healthy windslab that was sometimes breaking as we skied. In general the mid pack is well settled, but we did experience a more "traditional" Rockies snowpack today around Mt. Murray. This area was thin and very weak. We often sank to ground while walking up. 

Terrain and Travel

  • Fresh wind slabs will likely form throughout the day, diligently watch for changing conditions.
  • Be careful with wind slabs, especially in steep, unsupported and/or convex terrain features.
  • Avalanche hazard may have improved, but be mindful that deep instabilities are still present.
  • Avoid thin areas like rock outcroppings where you're most likely to trigger avalanches failing on deep weak layers.

Regions covered