Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Jan 6th, 2025–Jan 7th, 2025

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, Bow Valley, Highwood Pass, North 40, Spray - KLakes.

Big blue skies, a little bit of fresh snow has helped the skiing.

Confidence

High

Avalanche Summary

A couple small natural cornices triggered sluffs in steep terrain were observed. No slabs were pulled out.

Snowpack Summary

Recent snow has mostly facetted out providing good skiing. Wind effect has been mostly isolated to immediate lee and col features. We took windslabs out of the problem list as they don't seem to exist at the moment.

The previously mentioned buried windslabs are now conglomerated within the mid pack.

The weak basal facets are still a concern and have a potential to be triggered from thin snowpack areas which are still plentiful at this time. Stability has been improving but we are still avoiding steep thin features where triggering this weakness is still a possibility.

Weather Summary

Tuesday:

A mix of sun and cloud, day time high of -2 with 35km/h West winds at ridge top. Freezing levels will rise to 1700m.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

Terrain and Travel Advice

Be mindful that deep instabilities are still present in the snowpack.

Problems

Deep Persistent Slabs

Deep Persistent Slab avalanches are the release of a thick cohesive layer of hard snow (a slab), when the bond breaks between the slab and an underlying persistent weak layer deep in the snowpack. The most common persistent weak layers involved in deep, persistent slabs are depth hoar or facets surrounding a deeply buried crust. Deep Persistent Slabs are typically hard to trigger, are very destructive and dangerous due to the large mass of snow involved, and can persist for months once developed. They are often triggered from areas where the snow is shallow and weak, and are particularly difficult to forecast for and manage.