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Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Dec 16th, 2019–Dec 17th, 2019

Alpine
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely.
Alpine
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely.
Alpine
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely.

Regions

Kananaskis.

More wind creating wind slabs in the alpine. Caution for traveling in the lower elevations due to the low snow coverage.

Confidence

High -

Weather Forecast

Tuesday will bring a mostly cloudy sky with light flurries, strong westerly winds and a high of -10c. Very similar for the rest of the week.

Avalanche Summary

Several size 1 natural avalanches were observed mostly on East aspects.

Snowpack Summary

Let's start at the valley bottom and work up through the zones. There is not a whole lot of snow in the valley bottoms and it is mostly faceted out and not very supportive, thus making travel a wee bit challenging. At 2200m, there is about 100cm of snow at the most, of which the bottom 60cm is comprised of facets. Today, we were getting hard shovel compression tests at that facet interface. Somewhere around 2350m, the snowpack increases a bit and has a supportive midpack. This midpack was mostly formed by the numerous winds slabs that have bonded over the last few weeks. Right now, the wind has started up again and is strong from the West, thus laying down another wind slab in most of the alpine.

Problems

Wind Slabs

Wind Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) formed by the wind. Wind typically transports snow from the upwind sides of terrain features and deposits snow on the downwind side. Wind slabs are often smooth and rounded and sometimes sound hollow, and can range from soft to hard. Wind slabs that form over a persistent weak layer (surface hoar, depth hoar, or near-surface facets) may be termed Persistent Slabs or may develop into Persistent Slabs.

Persistent Slabs

Persistent Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) in the middle to upper snowpack, when the bond to an underlying persistent weak layer breaks. Persistent layers include: surface hoar, depth hoar, near-surface facets, or faceted snow. Persistent weak layers can continue to produce avalanches for days, weeks or even months, making them especially dangerous and tricky. As additional snow and wind events build a thicker slab on top of the persistent weak layer, this avalanche problem may develop into a Deep Persistent Slab.