Avalanche Forecast
Regions: Bow Valley, Highwood Pass, Kananaskis, North 40, Spray - KLakes.
About 10 cm of snow overnight will help freshen up the skiing a bit. Freshly formed windslabs may now be covered, use caution when entering terrain where a windslab may exist.
Confidence
High
Avalanche Summary
No field teams today, and no reports.
Snowpack Summary
The recent storm snow is settling and now averages 10 to 20cm over the Feb 3 crust. This crust is anywhere from 0.5cm to 5cm thick up to 2500m and is on the thinner side on North aspects. Natural sluffing has subsided but can still gain momentum with skier traffic on steeper slopes. Some wind slab development in the alpine has been reported. Ski quality is dust on crust in the alpine. The depth of the snowpack still varies from 70-130cm.
Weather Summary
Moderate W-NW winds in the spray valley on Monday. Monday morning also showed up to 12cm of new snow overnight at the Burstall pass weather station.
Tuesday should bring partially sunny skies and a couple flurries. A day time high of -15. Winds will swap slightly to NE at 30km/h.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
Terrain and Travel Advice
- Avoid areas with a thin or variable snowpack.
- Be carefull with sluffing in steep terrain, especially above cliffs and terrain traps.
- Back off if you encounter whumpfing, hollow sounds, or shooting cracks.
Avalanche Problems
Wind Slabs
Some recent winds have likely created some isolated wind slabs where you do not normally find them(reverse loading).
Aspects: All aspects.
Elevations: Alpine.
Likelihood: Possible
Expected Size: 1 - 2
Persistent Slabs
This will still be an issue in areas that escaped the heat, as there is no previous crust to hold the snowpack together.
Aspects: North, North East, East, West, North West.
Elevations: Alpine.
Likelihood: Unlikely - Possible
Expected Size: 1.5 - 2.5