Avalanche forecast

Kananaskis

Mar 4 – 5, 2016Alberta Parks
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Archived · expired 11 years ago

Avalanche danger

Sun
Mon
Alpine
3 · Considerable
Treeline
3 · Considerable
Below
1 · Low
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Highlights

Tomorrow's forecast balances on the wind, sun exposure and freezing level. Watch the weather carefully and don't hesitate to change plans. Expect the treeline hazard to vary with aspect. In low, or sun exposed areas the 27th could be loaded.

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    1–3
    This layer includes old and new/developing windslabs. Watch for fresh windloading on lee aspects and expect the possibility of buried wind slabs on south aspects.

  • Cornices

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    1–4
    The fresh cornices from today are building rapidly and are often weak. Keep these in mind as a potential trigger for both wind slabs and the deep persistent slabs.

  • Persistent Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Unlikely - Possible
    Size
    2–5
    Transitional terrain in the alpine is a likely place to find this layer within the human triggering depth range.

Confidence

High

Weather Forecast

Tomorrow will see isolated flurries bringing trace amounts of snow. The alpine high will reach zero degrees, but it probably won't feel like that. The winds will be consistently 35km/hr with gusts up to 75km/hr! Freezing level will rise to 2100m.

Avalanche Summary

Some newer loose dry avalanches were noted out of steep alpine terrain. Two slabs were observed as well. Both were in the alpine on east to south east aspects and initiated just below steep cliffs. From a distance, they both looked to be sz2-2.5 with the Jan 6th as the sliding surface. Both avalanches were in the northern part of the region (Mt Rundle & the Goat range).

Snowpack Summary

Intermittent flurries have kept adding to the snowpack. There is now 20cm on top of the Feb 27th layer/interface at treeline elevations. The 27th crust is more prevalent on solar aspects at the moment and extends quite high into the alpine. It is still a thick, well defined crust with no sign of breaking down just yet. On polar aspects, the Feb 27th layer ranges from a crust to more of a subtle density change. The elevation at which this happens is approximately 2100m. Above that the interface shows up as a density change, or in some places as a thin wind layer. Today's treeline profile had the Jan 6th facet layer down 105cm and bonding well with the other layers. This area was locally wind loaded, so expect that number to be non-representative of the region as a whole. The alpine saw significant winds today with severe wind transport. Winds were out of the SW-W, except where the terrain disturbed the flow and caused local reverse loading. Cornices continue to grow on a variety of aspects.

Regions covered