Avalanche Forecast

Issued: Mar 6th, 2015 7:08AM

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

matt.mueller, Alberta Parks

Kananaskis.

The back country skiing is less than inspiring these days. Widespread wind slabs offer very challenging conditions!

Summary

Confidence

Good

Weather Forecast

Extreme winds will continue throughout the night. Gusts are expected to reach 90km/hr! The good news is that the temperatures will be reasonably warm, -4 is the expected 2500m low tonight. Tomorrow will see the winds diminish and drop to 30km/r, gusting to 70km/hr from the west. The temperatures will remain around -5 with cloudy skies. No new snow is expected. Freezing level 1500m.

Avalanche Summary

Some spindrift avalanches were seen this morning. Confined alpine gullies in the front ranges had small spindrift avalanches pouring down regularly.

Snowpack Summary

Wind was the name of the game today. Somehow the winds managed to scrub even more snow away during the day today. Most of the snow was picked up and blown to Saskatchewan or sublimated away by the warm air temp. Not a lot of further slab development today in the alpine. Existing alpine surfaces are windslabs of various densities. Treeline is a similar story except for the continued formation of isolated windslabs in open areas. Below treeline is still a breakable crust buried beneath 5-10 cm's of snow.

Problems

Deep Persistent Slabs

We've officially hit the low probability, high consequence stage with this layer. Steep terrain with exposed rocks and a shallow snow pack are a considered a trouble area. Treat these areas with caution.

Be aware of thin areas that may propogate to deeper instabilites.>Choose well supported terrain without convexities.>

Aspects: All aspects.

Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.

Likelihood

Unlikely - Possible

Expected Size

2 - 4

Wind Slabs

Open areas near ridges are seeing hard slab development. With the ongoing wind event, we can expect these to grow and become a concern. Extreme alpine winds have kept this problem limited to treeline.

Be careful with wind loaded pockets near ridge crests and in terrain depressions>

Aspects: North, North East, East.

Elevations: Alpine.

Likelihood

Unlikely - Possible

Expected Size

1 - 2

Valid until: Mar 7th, 2015 2:00PM