Avalanche forecast

Kananaskis

Jan 17 – 18, 2019Alberta Parks
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Avalanche danger

Sat
Sun
Alpine
3 · Considerable
Treeline
2 · Moderate
Below
2 · Moderate
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Highlights

The bottom half of the snowpack is weak.  Careful route selection is advised.

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Likely
    Size
    1–2.5
    Expect to find wind slabs at all elevations. The depth and sensitivity to triggering are highly variable across the forecast region.

  • Deep Persistent Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Likely
    Size
    1.5–3
    Any avalanche has the potential to trigger the basal facets, resulting in large avalanches.

Confidence

High -

Weather Forecast

Friday will bring mostly a cloudy day with light flurries, a temperature of -7c and strong SW winds.  The weather models are not all in agreement for Saturday; some are talking about 15cm of snow and others 5 cm.  One thing they agree on is that the winds for Saturday could be in the neighborhood of 70-100km/hr from the SW.

Avalanche Summary

No new avalanches were observed today.

Snowpack Summary

Large surface hoar was observed mostly in sheltered areas.  This will be on our radar when the next snow flies.  Widespread wind slabs are present in the alpine and down into the open areas of tree line.  The upper snow pack is dense and still producing sheers down about 40cm on the December 30 facet layer and down 70cm on the Dec 10 basal facet interface(bottom 55 cm of the snow pack) .  The eye opener is that the sheer with the basal facets is still clean and fast and the consequences of triggering this layer would mean that the entire snowpack could come down. 

Regions covered