Avalanche Forecast

Issued: Mar 18th, 2018 3:00PM

The alpine rating is moderate, the treeline rating is low, and the below treeline rating is low. Known problems include Wind Slabs.

mike.koppang, Alberta Parks

Kananaskis.

Cooler temps are helping to strengthen the snowpack. Watch for isolated pockets of windlslabs along ridgelines and crossloaded features.

Summary

Confidence

High -

Weather Forecast

An additional 5cm of snow is forecast to fall overnight with generally light winds.Â Alpine temperatures on Monday will be cooler with day time highs around -5C under a partly cloudy sky.Â When the sun does come out, it has alot of punch at this time of year so be aware that solar aspects may quickly deteriorate if the sky goes clear.

Avalanche Summary

A few new loose dry slides were observed on Sunday mainly occurring from steep unskiable terrain.

Snowpack Summary

10-15cm of new snow has fallen in the past 24hrs with very little wind affect noted. This snow is overlying a thin breakable temperature crust that formed on Friday (March 16th) on solar aspects and in lower elevations such as valley floors. On northern aspects the snow is still remaining dry with only isolated windslabs being found in alpine areas. If you are travelling on more solar aspects, ne sure to dig down and check the bond between this most recent snow and the underlying crusts. Two main crusts are being noted the March 16th crust (down 15-20cm) and the March 7th crust down (30-40cm).

Problems

Wind Slabs

Windslabs should be expected in alpine terrain alpine ridgelines, in gullied features. These slabs do not appear to extend far downslope.

Be careful with wind loaded pockets, especially near ridge crests and roll-overs.Give cornices a wide berth when traveling on ridges.

Aspects: North, North East, East, South East.

Elevations: Alpine.

Likelihood

Unlikely - Possible

Expected Size

1 - 2

Valid until: Mar 19th, 2018 2:00PM