Avalanche Forecast

Nothing new observed today.

Overnight and through Saturday we should see a gradual cooling as the cooler air moves back in. The gradual cooling will be coupled with light snowfalls of up to 6cm. What we can expect is a new surface crust below 2000m in many areas. The freezing level climbed to 2200m on friday with +4 at valley bottoms. These warmer temps will help settle out the snowpack a bit but we would need a few continued days of this in order to really improve the conditions.

With regard to the current structure of the snowpack not much is changing. The weak basal facets are still there and can be triggered from thinner snowpack areas and due to the snowpack above having become more cohesive over the past weeks the potential for a large deep full depth avalanche is real. Also in the snowpack the Dec 17th SH layer is down 30-50cm and producing moderate to hard sheers. Regardless of a sheer in the midpack, there is a high likelihood that any avalache will step down and involve the entire snowpack.

Trace snow accumulation across the Region, though a few west-facing slopes could receive a couple centimeters under the heaviest flurries. Southwest winds will weaken in the morning from 30 to 40 km/h to 15 to 20 km/h around Kananaskis Country (KC). Alpine temperatures -2°C to -6°C across most of the Range, except 0°C to +2°C south of Highwood Pass

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Avoid shallow, rocky areas where the snowpack transitions from thick to thin.
• Be aware of the potential for surprisingly large avalanches due to deeply buried weak layers.
• If triggered, wind slabs avalanches may step down to deeper layers resulting in larger avalanches.