Avalanche forecast

Kananaskis

Feb 4 – 5, 2018Alberta Parks
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Archived · expired 9 years ago

Avalanche danger

Tue
Wed
Alpine
4 · High
Treeline
3 · Considerable
Below
3 · Considerable
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Highlights

Lots of new snow and good skiing.  Tread carefully as the snowpack is complex and  human triggered avalanches are still likely in many areas.

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Likely - Very Likely
    Size
    1.5–3
    Wind slabs are extensive in the alpine down to tree line. These may also step to deeper layers.

  • Persistent Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Likely
    Size
    1.5–3
    These are deeply buried (One meter +).  Be sure to assess them thoroughly.  These can be triggered by loose dry or the wind slabs.

  • Loose Dry

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Likely - Very Likely
    Size
    1–1.5
    Ice climbers, avoid gullies.  Expect sluffing in steeper terrain.

Confidence

Moderate - Due to the number of field observations

Weather Forecast

Monday is suppose to bring a mix of sun and cloud with an alpine temperature of -13c.  Winds are expected to be light from the West.  More snow is forecast for the latter part of the week.

Avalanche Summary

Some loose dry avalanches were noticed starting from the alpine in unskiable terrain.  One size 2.5 slab avalanche was noticed in the French creek area on a SE aspect at 2500m.

Snowpack Summary

There is about 40cm of snow from this most recent storm.  In the alpine and tree line, this storm snow is reactive to skier traffic as a slab on lee features.  In the Commonwealth area, the Jan. 6th surface hoar was found at 2350m was about 100cm down from the top.  This layer produced variable results from easy to hard but was very planar in nature. Some reverse loading from recent North winds was noticed; which means that some of the south aspects have more snow than usual.

Regions covered