Kananaskis

A beautifully sunny day. It was nice to travel through the alpine today and see the lack of wind affect snow. That said, the winds are starting to increase and there is a lot of snow available for transport. Approach wind loaded terrain with caution until you can confirm or deny that it is there.

Teams skied in the Burstall pass area today and noticed no new avalanche activity. Some old loose dry out of steep terrain from a few days ago.

The forecasting team travelled to Burstall pass today. We dug a full profile at 2260m right at treeline. We found an overall good looking snowpack that was 115cm deep and the October crust starts on the ground and is 13cm thick. The November crust was 30cm off the ground and was 5cm thick. Above that a pretty well settled snowpack with no other interfaces of concern at this location. As we approached the pass proper at 2350m the winds increased and there was some visible snow transport happening in the distance as well as fresh small windslabs starting to form in the immediate lee.

The Highwood area has had more wind affect than other areas. While it isn't wind scoured by any means, there are some higher areas showing waves and ripples.

Tuesday night will see a night time low of -13 and no precip expected. Winds will be Light out of the West.

Wednesday: Cloudy with sunny periods with a day time high of -14. Winds will slightly increase to 20-35km/h out of the West. No precip expected.

For more weather check out: https://avalanche.ca/weather/forecast

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Be careful with wind-loaded pockets, especially near ridge crests and rollovers.
• Keep in mind a buried crust offers an excellent bed surface for avalanches.