Forecast winds and freezing levels later this week may tip the scales for our hazard levels in K-Country. When more snow, wind and/or rising temperatures come into the mix, don't let yourself be surprised by the abrupt jump in avalanche danger.
Weather Forecast
Cloudy with scattered flurries. Snowfall accumulation of 4 cm. Alpine temperature -8.0. WInds are light from the east and freezing levels at valley bottom.
Avalanche Summary
Avalanche activity has been pretty limited in the land of 'K' but in Banff/ LLYK National Parks where they have received more storm snow over the January interface and are seeing more skiers triggering loose dry avalanches that are running far and fast and increasingly more dangerous. These avalanches size (1.5-2.0) are now getting big enough to injure and potentially bury someone if the run out was a terrain trap. Skiers need to watch this especially on bigger, steeper, more committing lines in the alpine and ice climbers need to start being more attuned to the changes that are emerging with ice routes that have alpine start zones and in terrain that is in gulley terrain that magnifies the effect of even small avalanches. The new snow is building up over this weak January 7th interface and now that we have had some wind input, any additional stressors (precipitation, wind, solar inputs) has good potential to tip the scales.
Snowpack Summary
The biggest change was some localized wind effect in the Commonwealth and Burstall Pass areas from a few days ago. I suspect there is some wind slabs right at ridge top alpine features in the immediate lee of the wind and also on crosswind effected slopes and gulleys. The other topic of discussion is the thick layer of facets from the long drought from mid December up until recently. These windslabs if triggered have the potential to run and then entrain the facets further down the slope. This is a pretty significant layer of facets up to 20-30cm thick and in shallow snowpack areas (ie wind affected areas in the alpine & shallow area TL and below) the entire snowpack could be facetted. Terrain at TL and above where the snowpack is deeper than 70-80cm will have some structure and thus be supportive and more reliable.
Problems
Loose Dry
Loose Dry avalanches are the release of dry unconsolidated snow and typically occur within layers of soft snow near the surface of the snowpack. These avalanches start at a point and entrain snow as they move downhill, forming a fan-shaped avalanche. Other names for loose-dry avalanches include point-release avalanches or sluffs.
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.