Avalanche Forecast

Issued: Jan 24th, 2016 3:00PM

The alpine rating is considerable, the treeline rating is moderate, and the below treeline rating is low. Known problems include Persistent Slabs and Wind Slabs.

jeremy.mackenzie, Alberta Parks

Kananaskis.

The stable weather pattern should lead to a steady improvement in hazard levels. But it is very important to evaluate the snowpack carefully before choosing terrain, due to the complexity of the slab conditions at upper elevations.

Summary

Confidence

Moderate

Weather Forecast

Monday will be cloudy with sunny periods with no precipitation expected. Alpine temperatures should reach a high of -9 C. Ridge-top winds will be westerly at 30km/h. Tuesday will be very similar, but slightly windier.

Avalanche Summary

A few very small loose dry avalanches were observed today in steep Alpine terrain on SE, E and NE aspects.

Snowpack Summary

10cm of low density new snow overnight overlies a variety of previous surfaces. Wind affect begins at 2300m with highly variable wind slab conditions above this elevation. Easy compression tests are found at the new snow interface and a hard shear was found down 80cm within a facet layer. The Jan 6 weak layer was found down 45cm in our profile today, but did not produce any test results. A melt freeze crust (now buried) exists on all aspects below 2050m. The snowpack below treeline has become very weak due to prolonged facetting, making for deep ski penetrations.

Problems

Persistent Slabs

Persistent slabs up to 30cm thick are widespread in Alpine lee and cross-loaded features and in more specific areas at treeline. These slabs could be more triggerable in shallow snowpack areas.

Avoid steep lee and cross-loaded features>Avoid shallow snowpack areas where triggering is more likely.>Dig down to find and test weak layers before committing to a line.>

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

Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.

Likelihood

Possible

Expected Size

2 - 4

Wind Slabs

Recently formed wind slabs are found in lee and cross-loaded features above 2300m. These slabs are generally thin, but could be as thick as 40cm in wind prone areas.

Avoid freshly wind loaded features.>Avoid lee and cross-loaded terrain near ridge crests.>

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

Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.

Likelihood

Possible

Expected Size

1 - 3

Valid until: Jan 25th, 2016 2:00PM