Avalanche Forecast

Issued: Jan 18th, 2016 3:00PM

The alpine rating is moderate, the treeline rating is low, and the below treeline rating is low. Known problems include Wind Slabs and Loose Dry.

matt.mueller, Alberta Parks

Kananaskis.

The ongoing flurries are adding up. Monitor new snow amounts as you travel to gauge the severity of the potential windslabs.

Summary

Confidence

High

Weather Forecast

Mainly cloudy with isolated flurries tomorrow. We'll likely pick up a few cm's out of these flurries. Expect an overnight low of -9 and a daytime hi of -6. The winds will be from the SW and average 20kn/hr with gusts up to 50km/.hr.

Avalanche Summary

Nothing new

Snowpack Summary

Below treeline we are seeing about 5cm of new snow. This is sitting on top of the weaker faceted grains that were left exposed during the clear spell a couple of weeks ago. The travel is reasonable if using previously tracked trails. In unbroken areas, expect to wallow in the facets. Especially if the terrain is lightly treed. There is 70-80cm of snow below treeline. As elevation is gained, the snowpack has kept its supportive midpack. At the moment the trail breaking is reasonable with ski penetrations of almost 20cm. The surface layers are heavily facetted with steep areas making for slow travel. New snow amounts at treeline average 10-15cm. The alpine snowpack can be best described as facetted and weak near the surface and well bonded and settled to the ground . There is a well defined interface down 40 where the deeper, facetted snow joins the latest series of windslabs, however at the moment the layer seems well bonded.

Problems

Wind Slabs

So far these are focused to immediate lee areas. Start looking for these as you approach ridges.

Avoid steep slopes below cornices.>

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

Elevations: Alpine.

Likelihood

Unlikely - Possible

Expected Size

1 - 3

Loose Dry

The steepness of a slope will dictate the likelihood of this problem. Avoid steep, gully features and expect the majority of the snowpack to sluff if an avalanche is triggered.

Be cautious of sluffing in steep terrain.>Be very cautious with gully features.>

Aspects: All aspects.

Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.

Likelihood

Possible

Expected Size

1 - 3

Valid until: Jan 19th, 2016 2:00PM