Avalanche Forecast
Regions: Kananaskis.
The care free days of boot top powder are not with us at the moment. While some sheltered areas have a bit of loose snow, most areas are wind effected and challenging skiing/riding. Give steep, convex features a miss for a few days here.
Confidence
High -
Weather Forecast
A Ho-Hum day for tomorrow. A little cloud, a little wind and very, very little snow. Overnight lows of -8 with a daytime high of -5C. Light SW winds, and maybe a few flurries to round out the day. No need for the big boards tomorrow. Although they would help you stay on top of the wind slab, but that's a story for the snowpack discussion.
Avalanche Summary
Nothing new today.
Snowpack Summary
Wind slabs as far as the eye can see. Seriously, that's the big story right now. It seems all elevations and aspects have a layer of new, hard AND breakable windslab right now. The good news is that the mid pack is well settled with only a few layers of concern. The concerning layers are variable in their location, and tend to be the layers of windslabs reacting, not the deeper layers. We found "drummy" snow today in the Murray Moraines area today and suspect that the entire range has that snow quality right now.Â
Terrain and Travel
- Watch for newly formed and reactive wind slabs as you transition into wind affected terrain.
- Be careful with wind slabs, especially in steep, unsupported and/or convex terrain features.
- Avoid areas where the snow feels stiff and/or slabby.
Avalanche Problems
Wind Slabs
With the lull in the winds, windslabs have stopped growing. Unfortunately they haven't started bonding, like you would expect. Exposed areas have an odd eeriness that kept us limited to low angle, supported terrain today.
Aspects: All aspects.
Elevations: All elevations.
Likelihood: Likely
Expected Size: 1 - 3
Cornices
Cornices have been growing and are prone to failure with all the wind and extra load.
Aspects: All aspects.
Elevations: Alpine.
Likelihood: Likely
Expected Size: 1.5 - 2.5