Avalanche forecast

Kananaskis

Apr 6 – 7, 2015Alberta Parks
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Archived · expired 11 years ago

Avalanche danger

Wed
Thu
Alpine
2 · Moderate
Treeline
1 · Low
Below
1 · Low
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Highlights

Solar radiation is very intense at this time of year. Start your trip early and finish early to take advantage of the overnight freeze. Good skiing is found on northerly aspects at higher elevations.

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    1–3
    Wind slabs are present in alpine terrain in lee and cross-loaded features. More extensive wind slab development is possible due to the amount of snow available for transport.

  • Loose Wet

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible - Likely
    Size
    1–2
    The April solar radiation is very strong and any sunny periods quickly lead to moist snow and the possibility for loose wet avalanches.

  • Deep Persistent Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Unlikely
    Size
    2–5
    The basal weak layers have been dormant for some time, but the potential remains for a low probability, high consequence event due to the structure of the snowpack. Be mindful of this issue in shallow snowpack regions and when the snowpack warms up.

Confidence

Good

Weather Forecast

Tuesday will bring cloudy skies with some sunny periods. No precipitation is expected and alpine temperatures should reach a high of -3 °C. Winds will be light from the northwest at 10 km/h. The freezing level should climb to 2000 metres. The rest of the week looks mostly sunny with light winds and freezing levels near 2200m.

Avalanche Summary

A few small loose dry avalanches were observed today on all aspects in steep alpine terrain.

Snowpack Summary

The recent storm snow has settled out to between 25 and 30cm at treeline elevations. This sits on a wide variety of previous surfaces including crusts in many locations. Field teams observed planar shears in the moderate range below the recent storm snow in snowpack tests today. Soft wind slabs are present in isolated alpine terrain, particularly in lee and cross-loaded features. Solar aspects have a new sun crust on the surface up to at least 2700m. These crusts remained frozen today due to cloudy skies and cool temperatures, but any input of solar radiation was triggering loose wet slides and producing moist snow yesterday.

Regions covered