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Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Mar 19th, 2021–Mar 20th, 2021

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

Regions

Kananaskis.

With some light snow coming through the area, expect the skiing to be good. There will hopefully be just enough snow to take the edge off the crusty conditions on south aspects. 

Confidence

Moderate -

Weather Forecast

If good spring skiing is your thing, read on...

We are expecting somewhere around 10cm of new snow by late tonight or early tomorrow. Forecasts don't quite agree, but they all say snow. They do agree on winds being moderate from the SW at ridgelines. The best part is its also going to cool off. The daytime high is -4, but with cloudy skies.

Avalanche Summary

Only a few reports of small loose dry avalanches running on hard surfaces. 

Snowpack Summary

It sounds like we had some light snow that has buried the sun crusts and other various layers. With that we expect thin wind slabs in the alpine. The question will be how well they've bonded to the underlying layers. Given the warm temperatures, they will probably stick OK. Aside from the windslabs, we are dealing with a well settled spring like snowpack. Dry snow on polar aspects and refrozen, slightly buried crusts on sunny slopes.

Terrain and Travel

  • Wind slabs may be poorly bonded to the underlying crust.
  • Closely monitor how the new snow is bonding to the crust.

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.