Avalanche Forecast
Regions: Bow Valley, Highwood Pass, Kananaskis, North 40, Spray - KLakes.
It felt tropical on Tuesday with -10s in the Alpine! 10cm of new snow over the next few days adding load to the previous windslabs that exist along ridgelines and gullies. Good skiing in sheltered areas at treeline and above but below treeline, be prepared for logs and barely buried hazards.
Confidence
High
Avalanche Summary
A few loose dry sluffs from steep terrain as well as one sz 1 wind slab in Tent bowl that only involved the upper snowpack.
Snowpack Summary
The cooler temperatures over the previous week have facetted out the upper snowpack leaving it feeling low density on the top 10cm. As soon as you approach treeline features though, windslabs become more apparent along ridgelines and in gullied terrain. These slabs had a "cakey" feel on Tuesday in the Tent ridge area but there wasn't any cracking or whumpfing noted. Deeper in the snowpack the Dec 5th crust is being found up to 2350m with weak facets and depth hoar below this layer. Thin areas are places a skier may be able to trigger a failure in these basal facets that can propagate across a feature. Continue to check the depth of the snow as you travel feeling into the snowpack for the hard over soft feeling (Crust over basal facets). In below treeline areas, the snowpack is generally shallow with lots of logs and alders present.
Weather Summary
The deep freeze is over! Well it felt over at -13C!! Overnight and throughout the day on Wednesday we are expecting around 5-15cm with generally light winds. Temperatures will be around -20C in the am warming up to -14C.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
Terrain and Travel Advice
- Recent wind has varied in direction so watch for wind slabs on all aspects.
- In areas where deep persistent slabs may exist, avoid shallow or variable depth snowpacks and unsupported terrain features.
- Watch for rapidly changing conditions during periods of heavy loading from new snow, wind, or rain.
Avalanche Problems
Wind Slabs
Some wind slabs exist in the alpine, especially in lee and cross-loaded terrain.
Aspects: All aspects.
Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.
Likelihood: Possible
Expected Size: 1 - 2
Deep Persistent Slabs
This problem will be with us all season. At higher elevations there is more concern that these deep persistent weak layers could be human triggerable.
Aspects: North, North East, East, South East, South.
Elevations: Alpine.
Likelihood: Unlikely - Possible
Expected Size: 1.5 - 3