Avalanche Forecast
Regions: Bow Valley, Highwood Pass, Kananaskis, North 40, Spray - KLakes.
Avalanche control is planned for the Canmore Hill/EEOR area tomorrow morning. The road will be closed to all traffic at 10am.
Confidence
High
Avalanche Summary
No new reports or observations today.
Snowpack Summary
Large surface hoar was found today up to 2200m. This may be a layer to watch in the future.
Otherwise not much is changing in the snowpack (and that's not a good thing!). The mid-December surface hoar layer down 30cm at Treeline is reacting as a persistent slab with compression tests in the moderate range. Below this, the remainder of the snowpack is heavily facetted. Any avalanche triggered in the upper snowpack will almost certainly step down to the ground.
Forecasters are approaching all terrain conservatively and do not have much confidence in the snow pack, as it's one of the worst we've seen in many, many years.
Weather Summary
Some day we'll have a significant weather forecast to report. In the meantime this will have to do:
overnight low -8
daytime high -5
no new snow
light winds from the SW
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
Terrain and Travel Advice
- Avoid shallow, rocky areas where the snowpack transitions from thick to thin.
- Be aware of the potential for surprisingly large avalanches due to deeply buried weak layers.
- If triggered, wind slabs avalanches may step down to deeper layers resulting in larger avalanches.
Avalanche Problems
Deep Persistent Slabs
This layer is easy to trigger from thin, weak shallow areas.
Aspects: All aspects.
Elevations: All elevations.
Likelihood: Likely
Expected Size: 1 - 2.5
Persistent Slabs
If triggered the persistent slab is very likely to steep down to the deeper instability and involve the entire winter's snowpack.
Aspects: All aspects.
Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.
Likelihood: Possible
Expected Size: 1 - 2.5