Kananaskis

Despite the very cold temps Sunday morning, parties got out and enjoyed perfect blue bird sky's and reasonable skiing. Reverse loading (Winds from the NW) will build new reactive windslabs in A-typical features, use caution when entering S-SE terrain in open treeline and alpine terrain.

A road patrol down the spray today with perfect visibility noted no new avalanches. However lots of snow transport from the Moderate to Strong N winds all day promoting possible reverse loading.

On average 10cm of new snow fell at treeline with some areas seeing more and some a bit less. Valley bottoms (where snow is needed the most) was where it was less with only around 5cm accumulation. This new snow is overlying a thin melt freeze crust up to 2100m that makes the skiing very challenging but so far the bond appears to be good. The upper snowpack continues to strengthen with the only notable sheer at the interface with the deeper weak facets in the moderate range. Isolated windslabs were observed in alpine areas on southern aspects from the recent northerly winds but they do not extend far downslope.

As the snowpack above the weaker base becomes more cohesive the potential for wide propagation increases. This will be a common theme this winter and you should always be thinking about consequences of an avalanche.

Turns are pretty hard to come by as one forecaster described the area as the worst they have ever seen.....

Sunday proved to be a cold morning with -36 at Mud lake. But the day warmed up to -15 and the sun is starting to pack a punch. Monday will see slightly cloudy sky's day time highs of -17 and a Moderate West wind. No snow to speak of...

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Avoid shallow, rocky areas where the snowpack transitions from thick to thin.
• Be aware of the potential for surprisingly large avalanches due to deeply buried weak layers.
• If triggered, wind slabs avalanches may step down to deeper layers resulting in larger avalanches.