Avalanche Forecast

No new avalanches observed today with good visibility.

Some minor changes happened today. In the last 24hrs, the recent snow settled a respectable 6cm at the Highwood weather station. Overall, this is a good thing long term, but in the short term we may see some increase slab development. Likely it won't be an issue, but it will add a layer to our spindly snowpack. Valley bottoms and treeline areas are still skimpy for coverage. To quote every other Kananaskis snowpack summary: "we have a crust from mid November in the snowpack.". At the moment this crust is giving support and "walkability" but does pose an increasing concern as a sliding layer, especially as load and/or distribution changes. Death, taxes, wind & a crust...the certainties of life in Kananaskis.

Thursday will see some light snow coming our way. It looks like it will start in the afternoon and carry on overnight. Expect 4-8cm. The high for the day will be about -4° with a morning low of -10°. Winds? Those will be mostly light southerlies, but will briefly swirl around to the east for our impending blizzard.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Be careful with sluffing in steep terrain, especially above cliffs and terrain traps.
• Ice climbers should be equipped with avalanche safety gear.
• Be careful with wind-loaded pockets, especially near ridge crests and rollovers.
• Avoid terrain traps such as gullies and cliffs where the consequence of any avalanche could be serious.