Avalanche forecast

Kananaskis

Jan 19 – 20, 2018Alberta Parks
View on map
Archived · expired 9 years ago

Avalanche danger

Sun
Mon
Alpine
3 · Considerable
Treeline
2 · Moderate
Below
1 · Low
Open full map

Highlights

Strong winds have punished the snowpack in most open areas.  Watch for pockets of preserved surface hoar at treeline and below! 

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible - Likely
    Size
    1–2.5
    Strong winds and warm temps have combined to build widespread windslabs in the alpine & open treeline areas. These slabs are overlying a melt freeze crust on solar aspects and surface hoar at treeline and below.

  • Persistent Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible - Likely
    Size
    1–2
    Up to treeline being found especially in sheltered areas.

  • Persistent Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible - Likely
    Size
    1–2.5
    The recent load may begin to make the December 15th interface more reactive. This layer has turned into a 5-10cm thick facet layer and isolated surface hoar at treeline elevations.

Confidence

High -

Weather Forecast

A trace of new snow may fall overnight with temperatures on Saturday around -11C in the Alpine.  Winds will continue to be moderate out of the SW.

Avalanche Summary

A few new size two avalanches were observed in the past 24hrs.  These avalanches were seen in steeper treeline areas failing down 30-40cm.  Explosives results produced a few smaller avalanches and one larger treeline avalanche that crossed the smith dorrien highway.

Snowpack Summary

20cm of recent snow over the past 48hrs with strong winds.  Alpine terrain has definetly been ravenged by the winds with some windward slopes stripped bare and hard slabs on more N and E aspects.  At treeline there are two surface hoar layers down 30cm (Jan 6th) and down 50cm (Dec 15th) that have slowly becoming more reactive over the past few days.  Steeper features and unsupported roles should be treated with caution, especially in un-skied terrain.    No recent activity on the November crusts but we have not let these weaknesses fall from our thoughts.  Weak facets can be found surrounding these layers which indicates that these is potential for a slide to step down to one of these layers.

Regions covered