Kananaskis

New snow available for transport and is forming triggerable windslabs in wind affected areas. A near miss on Heros Knob south side approach is a good reminder that its still a winter snowpack in most areas (see summary for details). Hazard will increase on solar aspects. 

Temperatures are forecast to drop to around -10C and winds shift out of the north on Sunday. Skies will be clear so be mindful of solar input throughout the day.  

Numerous loose dry slides were observed from steep unskiable alpine terrain. There was also a skier triggered sz 2 as you traverse into the upper bench on the south approach of Hero's Knob that was up to 1m deep and took out the common uptrack route to access the north side of heros bowl. This slide was on a NE aspect at 2200m in 40deg terrain. Interestingly this involved the second skier to cross the slope. This was thankfully a near miss.  

Another 20cm of snow fell overnight on Friday bringing our recent snowfall totals from the past few days up to 40-50cm. This snow has been affected by strong variable winds that have created new reactive windslabs in alpine areas on all aspects that are failing on a storm snow interface down 40-60cm. In some sheltered areas the windslabs is also buried under the recent snow making it more subtle and easy to underestimate. Warm temps are promoting rapid settlement in the upper snowpack so this problem is likely to be active for the next few days. Cooler temps forecast for Sunday will help stabilize these windslabs a bit, but a skier triggered event on the South side of Heros knob indicates there is potential for human triggerring. Solar radiation is also strong at this time of year so start early and be mindful of decreasing stability on solar aspects later in the day.  

• Avoid steep convex slopes.
• Watch for newly formed and reactive wind slabs as you transition into wind affected terrain.