Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Dec 10th, 2016–Dec 11th, 2016

Alpine

Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.

Treeline

Natural avalanches unlikely.

Below Treeline

Natural avalanches unlikely.

Alpine

Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.

Treeline

Natural avalanches unlikely.

Below Treeline

Natural avalanches unlikely.

Alpine

Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.

Treeline

Natural avalanches unlikely.

Below Treeline

Natural avalanches unlikely.

Regions

Kananaskis.

Carefully evaluate Alpine terrain due to the presence of buried wind slabs. The character, distribution and triggerability of these slabs seems highly variable.

Confidence

Moderate -

Weather Forecast

Sunday will be cloudy with isolated light flurries and a high near -15 °C. Monday will see a return to cold and clear conditions with temperatures back into the -20 to -25 range.

Avalanche Summary

No new avalanches were observed or reported today.

Snowpack Summary

Trace to 3cm of new snow in past 24hrs has added to an average of 15cm of low density snow overlying buried wind slabs in the Alpine. These slabs are 5 to 15cm thick and sit on a pronounced layer of weak facets just above the Nov 12th crust layer which is now buried between 40 and 60cm. Snowpack stability tests are giving widely variable results below these buried wind slabs.

Problems

Persistent Slabs

Persistent Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) in the middle to upper snowpack, when the bond to an underlying persistent weak layer breaks. Persistent layers include: surface hoar, depth hoar, near-surface facets, or faceted snow. Persistent weak layers can continue to produce avalanches for days, weeks or even months, making them especially dangerous and tricky. As additional snow and wind events build a thicker slab on top of the persistent weak layer, this avalanche problem may develop into a Deep Persistent Slab.