Avalanche Forecast
Regions: Kananaskis.
More wind creating wind slabs in the alpine. Caution for traveling in the lower elevations due to the low snow coverage.
Confidence
High -
Weather Forecast
Tuesday will bring a mostly cloudy sky with light flurries, strong westerly winds and a high of -10c. Very similar for the rest of the week.
Avalanche Summary
Several size 1 natural avalanches were observed mostly on East aspects.
Snowpack Summary
Let's start at the valley bottom and work up through the zones. There is not a whole lot of snow in the valley bottoms and it is mostly faceted out and not very supportive, thus making travel a wee bit challenging. At 2200m, there is about 100cm of snow at the most, of which the bottom 60cm is comprised of facets. Today, we were getting hard shovel compression tests at that facet interface. Somewhere around 2350m, the snowpack increases a bit and has a supportive midpack. This midpack was mostly formed by the numerous winds slabs that have bonded over the last few weeks. Right now, the wind has started up again and is strong from the West, thus laying down another wind slab in most of the alpine.
Avalanche Problems
Wind Slabs
This relates to the developing wind slab , mostly in the alpine
Aspects: All aspects.
Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.
Likelihood: Possible
Expected Size: 1 - 2
Persistent Slabs
This is in relation to the weak facets in the bottom of the snow pack, whether it be the October or November crusts that are faceting out or just plain old facets.
Aspects: All aspects.
Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.
Likelihood: Unlikely - Possible
Expected Size: 1 - 2.5