Avalanche Forecast

Issued: Jan 14th, 2016 8:08AM

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 continuous flurries are slowly leaving enough snow to create soft slabs in the alpine. There is still some great skiing out there in sheltered, treeline areas. Just be prepared to walk for it.

Summary

Confidence

High

Weather Forecast

A few flurries tonight, mostly near the divide. No significant accumulation. Mainly cloudy with isolated flurries tomorrow. Accumulation will be minimal, maybe a few cm's at most. The alpine high will be -10. Winds will be from the west and range from 20-40km/hr.

Avalanche Summary

One wind lip/small cornice remotely failed from 15m away. The failure plain was preserved surface hoar. 2400m, E aspect at Burstall Pass, immediate lee and very unsupported terrain.

Snowpack Summary

Today saw some flurries move through the area that left up to 5cm in places. There was some wind with this snow, but transport was limited to the alpine. The below treeline snowpack hasn't gained any strength at all and has seen no change in terms of avalanche hazard. A full profile at treeline had encouraging results today. The snow depth was 120cm and where sheltered, had no failures or trouble layers. Ski penetration was 20cm and very supportive in all areas. In windy areas the it was a similar story, but the layers were all windslabs that have been laminated together into a cohesive snowpack. In the alpine, we had an unexpected surface hoar problem show up. On a few exposed ridges, we found very touchy slabs & cornices on unsupported rolls. The sliding surface was a layer of preserved surface hoar up to 8mm in size and in one case the slab was 50cm thick. This condition is not widespread and the features we found it on were not threatening terrain from an avalanche perspective. Very surprising for such a windy place.

Problems

Wind Slabs

The new snow has combined with the older, available snow and is building fresh windslabs in the alpine. So far we are seeing them in immediate lees, and mostly on east aspects. The flurries are adding up and slowly creating a slab problem.

Avoid freshly wind loaded features.>

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

Elevations: Alpine.

Likelihood

Unlikely - Possible

Expected Size

1 - 3

Loose Dry

"facalanches" are the best way to describe this problem. Steep, untracked areas at treeline and steep alpine gullies are likely places to see this problem.

Be very cautious with gully features.>

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

Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.

Likelihood

Possible

Expected Size

1 - 2

Valid until: Jan 15th, 2016 2:00PM