Kananaskis

A significant storm is set to arrive Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. Avalanche hazard will rise rapidly. Avoid avalanche terrain.

A Pineapple Express is pushing into the region Tuesday evening and into Wednesday. Between 30 and 40cm of new snow is expected with SW winds up to 120km/h and freezing levels near 1900m. A cooling and clearing trend are expected Thursday.

Ski cutting in steep terrain below treeline produced small sluffs. A size 1.5 wind slab was observed coming off a treeline feature on the south aspect of Heros' Knob. Further details are unknown as the skies were somewhat obscured.

3cm of new snow fell in the past 24hrs. The extreme SW winds continue, and have created widespread wind slabs at all elevations on south, north and east aspects. Only the most sheltered areas below treeline have escaped this. Today forecasters dug a pit at treeline and discovered multiple wind slab layers that all produced sudden planar failures at the different interfaces. In addition, ski cutting produced surface sluffing in steep sheltered terrain below treeline today indicating that the new snow is not bonding well to the old surface. If the forecasted snow arrives, these observations indicate that a natural avalanche cycle will occur at all elevations.

• Avoid all avalanche terrain during periods of strong wind.
• Avoid areas where the snow feels stiff and/or slabby.
• Be alert to conditions that change with elevation and wind exposure.
• Watch for fresh storm slabs building throughout the day.