Avalanche Forecast
Regions: Kananaskis.
Warm temperatures, light snow and high winds are keeping the hazard tricky to nail down, and likely variable from valley to valley. If traveling into the alpine, or exposing yourself to overhead terrain do your homework first and make as many field observations as you can.
Confidence
Moderate -
Weather Forecast
Tomorrow will be very similar to today. Cloudy, some flurries and moderate west winds. It will be a bit cooler with morning lows around -12. Sunday is looking snowier with most forecasts calling for a stronger pulse of snow. 10-15cm hopefully by Sunday night. Unfortunately wind is associated with this inbound snow, but we can talk about that tomorrow.
Avalanche Summary
No new avalanches were observed today.
Snowpack Summary
10cm on the Spray road this afternoon. With the warm temps, this snow was be heavy and settled quickly. It settled so quickly our snow depth gauges didn't even register it. Winds were still an issue in the alpine, but treeline and sheltered areas seem to have been spared the full brunt of the 100km/hr wind storm. Keep in mind this was on the Spray. Highwood is probably different, especially the east side of the road. Windslabs are still our main concern with the deeper crusts/dense layers on our radar, but not on our problem list yet.
Terrain and Travel
- Approach lee and cross-loaded slopes with caution.
- Watch for areas of hard wind slab on alpine features.
- Winter conditions may exist in gullies, alpine bowls, and around ridgelines.
- Ice climbers should be equipped with avalanche safety gear.
Avalanche Problems
Wind Slabs
There will be several layers of windslabs on top of each other as this storm plays out. Within these layers there will likely be a weak, reactive layer to watch for.
Aspects: All aspects.
Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.
Likelihood: Possible
Expected Size: 1.5 - 2.5