Avalanche forecast

Kananaskis

Dec 1 – 2, 2015Alberta Parks
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Archived · expired 11 years ago

Avalanche danger

Thu
Fri
Alpine
1 · Low
Treeline
1 · Low
Below
1 · Low
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Highlights

Throughout the region, the snow pack is hanging in there despite the extended clear weather. Of note though is the incredible surface hoar growing in low areas. Today, in numerous areas we saw surface hoar up to 70mm!

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Unlikely - Possible
    Size
    1–2
    Today we had a look at almost all of the forecast region. Most areas look heavily wind affected and the snow coverage looks solid. If an avalanche was initiated, it would likely be from a shallow area or a buried obstacle.

Confidence

Good

Weather Forecast

Mainly cloudy for tomorrow. The alpine high temperature will be -7 by mid afternoon. Winds will remain in the moderate-strong range (up to 50km/hr) with occasional gusts. The direction will be from the west. 3000m winds will be considerably stronger. Our forecast shows speeds of 100km/hr plus. Luckily these will be short lived and focused on the morning and early afternoon. No snow is expected.

Avalanche Summary

No activity was noted.

Snowpack Summary

Surface facetting is ongoing. Right now the top 20cm is noticeably weaker than it was a week ago. Of special note is the surface hoar. During today's snow study mission we visited a number of sites. All areas had surface hoar, and in a few places it reached 60-80mm in size! The midpack is still well settled and strong. The deep, basal layers are hanging in there with a a strong bond between snow grains. Compression tests had no failures at any profile location. The only exception to the well settled snowpack is in shallow areas. In these places the entire snowpack is weak and facetted with no prominent layers. Snow heights are: Burstall Pass:74Burstall Parking:62Dog Leg shoulder (treeline):75

Regions covered