Avalanche Forecast

Issued: Jan 22nd, 2019 3:00PM

The alpine rating is moderate, the treeline rating is moderate, and the below treeline rating is low. Known problems include Deep Persistent Slabs and Wind Slabs.

michael.olsthoorn, Alberta Parks

Kananaskis.

Good skiing can be found in sheltered areas at tree line and below.

Summary

Confidence

High -

Weather Forecast

Expect 5cm of snow with light to moderate westerly winds and -7c for Wednesday. Thursday is looking cloudy with a chance of flurries.

Avalanche Summary

No new avalanches were observed today.

Snowpack Summary

We ski toured up the Robertson glacier today and there was mostly hard wind slabs. We suspect that today's very strong westerly winds has created some more surface wind slabs in the alpine. We have a pretty well settled upper snow pack that is sitting on 50-60cm of basal facets. Because of the variability in snow depth, it is easy to come across thinner spots which are more sensitive to lighter loads such as a skier and also likely to trigger an avalanche.

Problems

Deep Persistent Slabs

If you push your pole into the snowpack until the ground, you will feel the basal facets in the lower half of the snow pack.

Be aware of the potential for full depth avalanches due to weak layers at the base of the snowpack.Carefully evaluate and use caution around thin snowpack areas.

Aspects: North, North East, East, South East, South, North West.

Elevations: All elevations.

Likelihood

Possible

Expected Size

1.5 - 3

Wind Slabs

Look for signs of ripples on the snow as a possible indication of wind effected snow.

Be aware of thin areas that may propogate to deeper instabilites.Avoid convexities or areas with a thin or variable snowpack.Be careful with wind loaded pockets while approaching and climbing ice routes.

Aspects: North, North East, East, South East.

Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.

Likelihood

Possible

Expected Size

1 - 2.5

Valid until: Jan 23rd, 2019 2:00PM