Avalanche forecast

Kananaskis

Mar 20 – 21, 2016Alberta Parks
View on map
Archived · expired 11 years ago

Avalanche danger

Tue
Wed
Alpine
3 · Considerable
Treeline
2 · Moderate
Below
1 · Low
Open full map

Highlights

Solar aspects have a mixture of crusts and northern aspects are still full on winter with a weak facetted snowpack.  Solar radiation is strong at this time of year so pay close attention to the sun!

Avalanche problems

  • Cornices

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible - Likely
    Size
    3–6
    Cornices are large and we have seen a few collapse of late with the warmer temperatures and continued loading. When these do fail the heavy loads on underlying slopes may awaken the basal instabilities and produce very large avalanches.

  • Persistent Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible - Likely
    Size
    2–5
    Wind slabs up to 40cm thick are present in lee and cross-loaded features in alpine areas and in very specific locations at treeline.

  • Deep Persistent Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible - Likely
    Size
    3–6
    Basal facets and the Jan 6th FC interface are likely to be triggered from thinner snowpack areas.

Confidence

High - Due to the number and quality of field observations on Sunday

Weather Forecast

Freezing levels are forecast to drop to near 1600m over the next few days with conditions being a bit more cloudy.  Temperatures in the Alpine tomorrow will be around -2C with a  few small cm's of snow expected overnight. 

Avalanche Summary

A few loose wet avalanches up to sz 1 were being observed on solar aspects out of steep unskiable terrain.  More avalanches may have occurred but forecasters were out of the field by 1pm.

Snowpack Summary

Moist snow was being encountered on solar aspects up to 2700m.  North aspects still had dry snow but the snowpack on these areas is far from a stable spring snowpack.  Many areas had a weak facetted base that would be prone to triggering by a skier from a thinner snowpack area.  Cornices are still large and looming over many alpine features.  As temperatures cool moving into the week, solar aspects will have a rugged temperature crust that will make skiing challenging. 

Regions covered