Avalanche Forecast

Issued: Jan 19th, 2017 3:34PM

The alpine rating is considerable, the treeline rating is moderate, and the below treeline rating is low. Known problems include Wind Slabs and Deep Persistent Slabs.

matt.mueller, Alberta Parks

Kananaskis.

Cooler temps will help to tighten up the treeline snowpack. As it transitions, keep an eye out for signs of lingering weaknesses. Inspect the snowpack frequently and don't jump into terrain blindly.

Summary

Confidence

High -

Weather Forecast

Treeline winds will continue to be in theÂ 25 km/hr range for tonight. The temperatures are also expected to fall tonight to -10Â°.Â Tomorrow will be cloudy with generally cooler temps. Winds will be light out of SW. As the week end approaches, temps will become more seasonal. As for snow, we aren't expecting anything significant.

Avalanche Summary

No avalanches today

Snowpack Summary

The snow from the last storm cycle has been re-distributed by the strong to extreme westerly winds. This transport is more evident at the alpine elevations where crossloading and lee loading have occurred. These new wind slabs will are easily seen and/or predicted on N to SE aspects. Treeline suffers from the same problem, however the loading pattern is a bit trickier to predict. The slabs are 10-20cm thick and reactive to skier terrain in steep, unsupported terrain. The treeline midpack, is still considered weak and un supportive. Below treeline, the coverage is still shallow with very poor travel conditions when off an existing trail.

Problems

Wind Slabs

The last storm missed us almost completely. What little snow we did get has been blown into windslabs on lee aspects. Given the weak underlying layers, terrain choices should still be conservative while the snowpack adjusts.

Avoid unsupported slopes.Avoid steep lee and cross-loaded slopes

Aspects: North, North East, East, South East.

Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.

Likelihood

Possible - Likely

Expected Size

1 - 2

Deep Persistent Slabs

These layer is now down 50-70cm at treeline. Neighboring areas are seeing small avalanches stepping down to this layer creating large avalanches.

If triggered the wind slabs may step down to deeper layers resulting in large avalanches.Be aware of thin areas that may propogate to deeper instabilites.

Aspects: All aspects.

Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.

Likelihood

Possible

Expected Size

2 - 3

Valid until: Jan 20th, 2017 2:00PM