Avalanche forecast

Kananaskis

Nov 20 – 21, 2015Alberta Parks
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Archived · expired 11 years ago

Avalanche danger

Sun
Mon
Alpine
3 · Considerable
Treeline
2 · Moderate
Below
1 · Low

Highlights

Winds and temps are forecast to increase on Saturday.  The snowpack may begin to get a bit more reactive to skiers in open terrain.

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    1–3
    Wind slabs are beginning to tighten up and become less reactive but with the winds forecast to increase on Saturday, they may become more reactive to skiers.

Confidence

Good

Weather Forecast

Temps will be warming slightly and winds will begin to increase out of the NW into the moderate Range.  No new snow is in the forecast until Monday Evening.

Avalanche Summary

One sz 2 avalanche was observed on a NE face on Mt Black Prince. The avalanche was approx 24hrs old and initiated in steep rocky terrain at 2800m. It was hard to estimate a depth due to the distance.

Snowpack Summary

Wind affect is being observed in Alpine terrain along ridgelines and cross loaded features. Field observations on Friday show that these slabs do not extend that far downslope but that may not be the case in other areas. Highwood area had reports of widespread wind affect and a highly variable snowpack while areas closer to the divide seem to have had less wind affect and a slightly less variable snowpack. Overall the snowpack continues to settle and strengthen and the sheers within the storm snow are starting to tighten up and become less reactive. We were able to locate the 1105 Surface hoar 10-15cm off the ground at treeline today but no sheers were noted at this interface.

Regions covered