Kananaskis

Wind slabs are sensitive to avalanche triggering. Be conservative in route selection.

Report on Thursday of one skier remote size 2 and one avalanche sympathetic size 2 avalanches, both near Burstall Pass at 2500m on an East aspect. Both avalanches failed on basal facets underneath a buried wind slab.

Another 10cm of new snow fell on Wednesday night which brings this weeks snowfall amounts near 30cm. The theme for the snowpack this week is wind slabs overlying the November 10 crust and facets. This week's storm snow has seen 2 significant wind events that have created reactive wind slabs in the alpine. These wind slabs are sitting on either a slippery crust and/or facets that are both creating the sliding layer for the recent avalanches. Total snow varies from 20-70cm. Coverage is very inconsistent with LOTS of hidden hazards.

Warming trend for Friday with freezing level rising up to 2700m. Mostly sunny with some clouds and 30-40km/h winds from the West.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Be carefull with sluffing in steep terrain, especially above cliffs and terrain traps.
• Avoid lee and cross-loaded terrain.
• Watch for newly formed and reactive wind slabs as you transition into wind affected terrain.
• Avoid terrain traps where the consequence of any avalanche could be serious.