Avalanche Forecast
Regions: Bow Valley, Highwood Pass, Kananaskis, North 40, Spray - KLakes.
The warmer weather will continue, The upper snowpack continues to settle and become less reactive. However this still sits on top of a very weak snowpack.
Confidence
Moderate
Avalanche Summary
Nothing new has been reported or observed.
Snowpack Summary
The top 30cm of the snowpack is either made up of settled snow or wind slabs and is overlying 5-15cm of facets. These wind slabs were found at treeline and above and produced some cracking when travelling uphill. The January 8th facet/crust surface hoar layer is down about 25-30cm and is getting better as the warmth sinks in.
Weather Summary
Saturday will see flurries throughout a cloudy day, alpine temps will hover around -2. West winds at 50km/h and the freezing levels are to rise to about 1900m. These warmer temperatures are here for the foreseeable future.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
Terrain and Travel Advice
- Back off if you encounter whumpfing, hollow sounds, or shooting cracks.
- Be carefull around freshly wind loaded features.
- In areas where deep persistent slabs may exist, avoid shallow or variable depth snowpacks and unsupported terrain features.
Avalanche Problems
Wind Slabs
This wind slab is found at treeline and above and is up to 30cm thick.
Aspects: North, North East, East, South East, South.
Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.
Likelihood: Likely
Expected Size: 1 - 2
Deep Persistent Slabs
This layer is getting getting buried deeper and deeper over time. The weight and amount of new snow is slowly increasing, which will increase the size of any potential avalanches.
Aspects: North, North East, East, South East, South.
Elevations: Alpine.
Likelihood: Possible
Expected Size: 1.5 - 3