Avalanche forecast

Kananaskis

Feb 27 – 28, 2016Alberta Parks
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Archived · expired 11 years ago

Avalanche danger

Mon
Tue
Alpine
2 · Moderate
Treeline
2 · Moderate
Below
2 · Moderate
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Highlights

Tonight the forecast is for some colder temperatures to freeze all this moist surface snow into some solid crusts which will improve travel and tighten up the snowpack.  New thin wind slabs have developed and cornice failures persist so remain aware.

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Unlikely - Possible
    Size
    1–3

  • Cornices

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Unlikely - Possible
    Size
    1–4

  • Persistent Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Unlikely
    Size
    2–5

Confidence

High

Weather Forecast

Sunday will be mainly cloudy with 5mm of snow forecast for the day. Winds will be out of the west 30km/h with some stronger gusts to 75km/h.  Freeze levels will rise to 1800 meters tomorrow.

Avalanche Summary

Surprisingly few loose wet avalanches observed today from the highway.  One avalanche was noted in the Murray moraines area, size 1.5 slab initiated from a cornice failure.

Snowpack Summary

Snowpack continues to settle with high freeze levels.  Moist snow to 2200 on all aspects due to lack of overnight recovery.  Moist to ridge top on all solar aspects.  Winds out of the west today were likely building thin wind slabs in the lee (easterly) aspects and across cross wind affected terrain today and continuing to build cornices at alpine ridgetop.  Below 2200, the snowpack was not supportive and travel was nasty.  Crusts will be prevalent on all solar aspects and up to 2200 meters approximately on all other aspects.  Shallow snowpack have weak facetted structure and do not support skiers weight.

Regions covered