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Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Dec 11th, 2016–Dec 12th, 2016

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

Regions

Kananaskis.

Great skiing out there, but watch for buried wind slabs in the Alpine. Steep and unsupported features should be approached with caution.

Confidence

High -

Weather Forecast

Monday will bring cold and clear conditions with highs near -20 °C and significant wind chill values. Winds will be out of the NW at 30km/h. Similar conditions will continue on Tuesday before a moderate warming trend arrives on Wednesday.

Avalanche Summary

No new avalanches were observed or reported today.

Snowpack Summary

Trace to 1cm of new snow in past 24hrs with very little wind effect in the upper 20cm of surface snow. Buried wind slabs are found on all aspects in the Alpine and just down into Treeline elevations, but they are variable in nature. These slabs are 5 to 20cm thick and sit on a pronounced layer of weak facets just above the Nov 12th crust layer which is now buried between 40 and 60cm. Recent snowpack stability tests are giving widely variable results below these buried wind slabs.

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.