Avalanche Forecast
Regions: Bow Valley, Highwood Pass, Kananaskis, North 40, Spray - KLakes.
15-20cm of storm snow has refreshed the skiing. You very much feel the rain/temp crust below but is fully supportive to skier traffic. Enjoy the reasonable skiing while its here!
Confidence
Moderate
Avalanche Summary
Good visibility on the spray noted some loose dry snow moving in the steepest alpine headwall features. Otherwise no new slab activity was observed.
Snowpack Summary
A field team went to Burstall pass today. Top elevation was 2400m and the rain/temp crust still exists and is fully supportive to skier traffic. There is about 10-20 cm on the crust and seems to be bonding well. Below this is the arctic facets, these are currently showing rounding behaviour and are bonding well. Facets and depth hoar still make up the remaining snowpack. Tests today showed no notable results in treeline features.
Weather Summary
Tuesday will bring sunny periods and isolated flurries.
High of -6 and 25km winds out of the SW
Freezing levels to hover around 1800m.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
Terrain and Travel Advice
- Wind slabs may be poorly bonded to the underlying crust.
- Back off if you encounter whumpfing, hollow sounds, or shooting cracks.
- In areas where deep persistent slabs may exist, avoid shallow or variable depth snowpacks and unsupported terrain features.
Avalanche Problems
Wind Slabs
Light winds and less than forecasted snow amounts will keep this problem more isolated to cross loaded and lee features in the alpine.
Aspects: North, North East, East, South East.
Elevations: Alpine.
Likelihood: Unlikely - Possible
Expected Size: 1 - 2
Persistent Slabs
This will still be an issue in areas that escaped the heat, as there is no previous crust to hold the snowpack together.
Aspects: North, North East, East, West, North West.
Elevations: Alpine.
Likelihood: Possible
Expected Size: 1.5 - 2.5
Deep Persistent Slabs
This layer is shielded by 2 crusts, but is still triggerable from thin to thick transitions. Very much a low probability, high consequence situation.
Aspects: All aspects.
Elevations: Alpine.
Likelihood: Unlikely - Possible
Expected Size: 1 - 2.5