Avalanche Forecast

Issued: Apr 10th, 2014 3:00PM

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

matt.mueller, Alberta Parks

Kananaskis.

Enjoy the spring weather for another day. Saturday will see a slight cooling trend with a bit of new snow.

Summary

Confidence

Good

Weather Forecast

Alpine winds will peak tonight and drop to 65km/hr at 3000m by tomorrow morning. Not a lot of temperature fluctuation overnight. Freezing level will drop to 1200m tonight and rise to almost 1900m tomorrow. Cloudy periods will bring a few flurries, but nothing significant will come of them. A cooling trend for the week-end will bring some light snow to the area.

Avalanche Summary

Nothing new

Snowpack Summary

Cool alpine temps have kept the snow cold and dry today. The winds have also kept up their pace, blowing the snow from west to east. Windslabs in the alpine are inevitable given the recent wind pattern. East and South East are the areas to find them. Treeline winds have been considerably less powerful. Any solar aspect at treeline and below will have felt the heat by now. Today saw no solar avalanche activity, so the heat only had a stabilizing effect on the snow. Valley bottom highs of 5 degrees have left crusts up to treeline on south aspects. The winds kept it cool enough to avoid any new temperature crusts.

Problems

Persistent Slabs

This layer has been on the problem list for a long time now. There is some confidence with it in most areas, but careful assessment and testing is still recommended before jumping into a big feature. Wide propagations are still possible.

Be aware of thin areas that may propogate to deeper instabilites.>

Aspects: All aspects.

Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.

Likelihood

Possible

Expected Size

2 - 5

Wind Slabs

Steep areas near exposed ridges at upper treeline and alpine elevations are the likely place to find these new slabs.

Be careful with wind loaded pockets, especially near ridge crests and roll-overs.>

Aspects: North, North East, East.

Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.

Likelihood

Possible - Likely

Expected Size

1 - 3

Valid until: Apr 11th, 2014 2:00PM