Avalanche Forecast

Issued: Mar 16th, 2018 3:00PM

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

matt.mueller, Alberta Parks

Kananaskis.

The crust/new snow interface has different characteristics at different points in the terrain. Aspect & elevation play a role on how good or bad the bond is. Look at this interface, and anticipate changes in the terrain.

Summary

Confidence

High -

Weather Forecast

A cloudy day for tomorrow with a daytime high of -8C. Light winds will continue for the next few days. No snow. Freezing level at valley bottom. The second pulse we were expecting has been down graded to only trace amounts for the week end.

Avalanche Summary

-Numerous loose dry our of alpine terrain. These all ran far on the crust. Most were small, sz1-1.5, but a few were larger at sz2. -several storm & wind slabs up to sz2.5. The most notable was the bowl next to Ha Ling. This was directly observed at about 9am. Likely a windslab that pulled out storm slabs as it ran.

Snowpack Summary

Almost 30cm of snow fell yesterday. This storm came in slightly different than expected. Firstly, the snowpack didn't have a chance to cool and refreeze before the snow flew. As a result, the new snow is sitting on a moist layer at low elevations, or a firm crust ay higher elevations. Secondly, there was some wind at higher elevations. Windslabs are present on all easterly aspects in the alpine and treeline has a widespread stormslab. The valley bottom snowpack is nearly isothermal(bottomless) and doesn't gain strength until 1950m. Lots of settlements and cracking in the weak snow areas. So far none of the deeper layers have woken up.

Problems

Wind Slabs

The alpine saw enough wind to build windslabs last night. At treeline, expect more of a settlement (or storm) slab.

Use caution in lee areas. New snowfall mixed with wind loading is creating Wind Slabs.Be careful with wind loaded pockets, especially near ridge crests and roll-overs.

Aspects: All aspects.

Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.

Likelihood

Likely - Very Likely

Expected Size

1 - 2

Valid until: Mar 17th, 2018 2:00PM