Avalanche Forecast

Issued: Apr 4th, 2018 3:00PM

The alpine rating is moderate, the treeline rating is low, and the below treeline rating is low. Known problems include Wind Slabs and Persistent Slabs.

mike.koppang, Alberta Parks

Kananaskis.

Light flurries are forecast for thursday before a largre pulse of snow arrives on the weekend. Use caution in lee features in alpine terrain.

Summary

Confidence

High -

Weather Forecast

Mainly cloudy skies with isolated flurries is forecast for thursday with temperatures in the -10C to -12C range. Winds are forecast to be light out of the east.

Avalanche Summary

No new avalanches were observed over the past 48hrs.

Snowpack Summary

Windslabs are being found in Alpine areas along ridgelines and cross loaded features. We are certainly avoiding steeper unsupported features such as above cliff walls and convex rolls that are near the entrances to some runs and terrain features. On solar aspects the march 15th crust is down 40-60cm and the bond on this crust has been variable. Did down and check this interface if you plan on moving onto more solar aspects. The skiing is likely not great on these aspects due to the presence of thin surface crusts.

Problems

Wind Slabs

Watch for both surface and near-surface wind slabs in Alpine terrain. In some cases the buried slabs are well disguised by the low density surface snow. These slabs were formed during a switch from NW wind to SW, so they do exist on multiple aspects.

Evaluate unsupported slopes critically.Be careful with wind loaded pockets, especially near ridge crests and roll-overs.

Aspects: North, North East, East, South East, South.

Elevations: Alpine.

Likelihood

Unlikely - Possible

Expected Size

1 - 2.5

Persistent Slabs

The March 15th melt-freeze crust, buried 30-50cm on solar aspects, could be an issue on bigger slopes, particularly in the Alpine. Evaluate the snowpack for the presence/absence of this problem layer before committing to a terrain feature.

Avoid steep Southerly aspects.

Aspects: North, North East, East, South East.

Elevations: Alpine.

Likelihood

Unlikely - Possible

Expected Size

1 - 2.5

Valid until: Apr 5th, 2018 2:00PM