Avalanche forecast

Kananaskis

Feb 6 – 7, 2017Alberta Parks
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Archived · expired 10 years ago

Avalanche danger

Tue
Wed
Alpine
4 · High
Treeline
4 · High
Below
3 · Considerable
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Highlights

A large natural avalanche cycle is occurring. Avoid all avalanche terrain.

Avalanche problems

  • Persistent Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Likely
    Size
    2–4
    Triggering of these slabs from a thin weak area may cause an avalanche that involves the entire snowpack. With the recent additional snow load, triggering of these deeper layers is now more likely.

  • Loose Dry

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Very Likely - Certain
    Size
    1–3
    Sluffing is occurring in steep terrain on all aspects and at all elevations.

  • Storm Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Very Likely - Certain
    Size
    1–3
    With up to 100cm of snow at Treeline in the past 72 hours, storm slab avalanches are almost certain to occur.

Confidence

Moderate -

Weather Forecast

The storm is coming to an end, and Tuesday will bring cloudy skies with sunny periods. Temperatures will remain cool with the temperature reaching a high of -19 °C. Wednesday should be a bit milder with more sun, and then a warm, windy and snowy day is expected on Thursday.

Avalanche Summary

Visibility was very limited today, but some natural avalanche activity was observed today in Alpine and Treeline terrain. One of the observed avalanches stepped down to the November persistent weak layer. We strongly suspect that a widespread avalanche cycle is occurring on all aspects and at all elevations.

Snowpack Summary

15 to 20cm of new snow in the past 24hrs brings storm snow totals to near 100cm at Treeline over the past 3 days. This storm snow sits on a previously formed dense wind slab in many parts of the forecast area. Widespread wind effect in Alpine and open areas at Treeline. Suspect significant wind slab development. Forecasters have a concern that the new load will cause failures in the deeply buried weak layers of Dec 18 and Nov 12, causing deep and destructive avalanches.

Regions covered