Avalanche forecast

Kananaskis

Feb 26 – 27, 2017Alberta Parks
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Avalanche danger

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

Even though the hazard is moderate and good skiing can be found, remember that the basal weak layer of facets and depth hoar should be part of every decision. 

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    1–2
    Recent winds have created isolated windslabs in lee and cross loaded areas

  • Persistent Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Unlikely - Possible
    Size
    2–3
    The buried hardslab is the concern here. Probing with a ski pole is the best way to monitor its location. Expect wide propagations if it does get triggered.

  • Deep Persistent Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Unlikely - Possible
    Size
    2–4
    This layer will be with us for the year and should be put into every slope decision.

Confidence

-

Weather Forecast

Cloudy with sunny periods for Monday. Alpine temperature of -16c and west ridge winds of 10km/hr.

Avalanche Summary

Several loose dry avalanches size 2 were noticed along highway #40.

Snowpack Summary

The forecasters were up in the Black Prince area today digging a profile at tree line. There is about 50cm snow overlying a thin crust which is producing easy test results in our snow pit today. We also found that the bottom half of the snowpack consisted of facets and depth hoar. Upon more tests, we got the entire column to fail on the basal depth hoar 35cm off the ground. All in all, good skiing but it is difficult to travel on steeper slopes for the fact that if the slope is triggered at a weak spot, the entire snowpack could avalanche.

Regions covered