Kananaskis

Avoid all avalanche terrain at all elevations.

Natural avalanche cycle ongoing.

A widepsread avalanche cycle is on going with many areas running full path to the end of there historical runouts. Fracture lines as long as 800m were observed on Thursday.

Rain soaked snow below 2100m that is likely isothermal in some thinner areas. As you climb above 2000m the upper snowpack is moist in the top 40cm with dry snow underneath. In alpine areas, we suspect the recent snow of up to 40cm is still dry but field teams did not go into this area. Moderate to strong westerly winds are creating new windslabs in open areas and a few settlements were heard by forecasters while travelling in treeline areas. The march crust down 50-80cm has also been active in snowpack tests on solar aspects over the past few field days.

Avoid all avalanche terrain at this time

High freezing levels around 2300m with light rain below this elevation and up to 15cm of snow above. Winds will be in the strong range out of the West. Is it unlikely there will be any refreeze of the snowpack overnight at lower elevations.

All in all warm temps, new snow and rain, and strong winds. A good time to continue to avoid avalanche terrain.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Avoid avalanche terrain during periods of heavy loading from new snow, wind, or rain.
• Avoid runout zones of large avalanche paths. Avalanches are expected to run to valley bottom.
• Wet avalanche activity may step down to deeply buried persistent weak layers at lower elevations.