Avalanche Forecast

Issued: Jan 27th, 2018 3:05PM

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

matt.mueller, Alberta Parks

Kananaskis.

Despite a not-so-encouraging forecast, there is some good skiing to be had. Conservative terrain at treeline seems to be the place to go.

Summary

Confidence

High -

Weather Forecast

Cloudy with sunny periods and isolated flurries tomorrow. High temp of -7. Winds increasing slightly tomorrow, west at 40km/hr.

Avalanche Summary

Poor visibility today but we did see a couple of smaller avalanches from the previous cycle. The most notable was an older sz2 that likely ran on the Dec15 layer.

Snowpack Summary

Flurries continued overnight and throughout today. Amounts added up to about 5cm, bit with settlement the overall storm totals haven't changed much. 20cm seems to be the average for overall new snow at treeline. In today's area (Purple Knob area) the Jan 6th surface hoar was down 65 and much more reactive in tests compared to the last few days. In tests, it failed with only moderate pressure(CTM12, SP). We didn't travel into the alpine today, but believe there is ongoing wind slab development on N to E aspects. As for the other trouble layers, we didn't see any results on them today, but they are still concerning.

Problems

Wind Slabs

These are multiple slabs that are laminated together. Stepping down to deeper instabilities is likely.

Be careful with wind loaded pockets, especially near ridge crests and roll-overs.Avoid steep lee and cross-loaded slopes

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

Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.

Likelihood

Likely

Expected Size

1.5 - 2.5

Persistent Slabs

As snow load increases, the "triggerability" of this layer will go up.

Watch for whumpfing, hollow sounds, and shooting cracks.Carefully evaluate terrain features by digging and testing on adjacent, safe slopes.Avoid convex rolls at and below treeline where buried surface hoar may be preserved.

Aspects: All aspects.

Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.

Likelihood

Likely

Expected Size

1.5 - 2.5

Valid until: Jan 28th, 2018 2:00PM