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Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Nov 23rd, 2017–Nov 24th, 2017

Alpine
Natural avalanches possible, human triggered probable.
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.

Cooler temps will move back into the forecast area overnight.  Watch for new thin wind slabs in alpine areas.  Rugged travel anywhere below 2500m.

Confidence

Moderate -

Weather Forecast

Snowfalls will begin to taper overnight and freezing levels will drop to the valley bottom.  We should see some recovery in the snowpack overnight but it will take a few days for the cool temps to fully penetrate the snowpack.  Winds will be SW on Friday with Alpine temps of -10C.

Avalanche Summary

Evidence of a few paths going sz 2 - 2.5 over the past 24hrs.  Most of the debris was stopping at the middle or bottom of the tracks of the slide paths.

Snowpack Summary

Freezing levels were around 2600m on Wednesday evening and finally began dropping late thursday afternoon.  So far lower elevations have seen a large decrease in snowpack depths due to warm temps and rainfall while treeline depth are still around 1m.  The recent rapid loading caused a natural avalanche cycle with many paths going sz 2-2.5 failing on either the Halloween crust or the Oct 17th melt freeze crust.  As this layer freezes overnight we will now start to have a new layer in the snowpack.  The November rain crust.  Conditions will tighten up with teh cooling overnight but it will take  afew days for teh cooler temps to penetrate the snowpack.

Problems

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.

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.